The Line Between Dark and Light
by GoThIcal-Writer
Summary: AU - After Lily and James Potter were killed, Sirius Black took Harry and raised him away from the prying eyes of the wizarding world. Now, in Harry's third year, he must leave everything he has known and go to Hogwarts. Vampire Harry, HPDM Slash
1. Chapter One

Harry closed his eyes and sighed, leaning farther back against the tree he was sitting by. His eyes had begun to ache again. Harry enjoyed being out in the sun every once in a while, it was a nice change of pace. Don't get him wrong, he naturally prefers the dark to the sunlight, but the sun could be a beautiful thing. The only problem with that was that he could never last over an hour in the sun without getting a rather painful pounding headache.

Harry closed the large book he was reading and regained his feet, heading inside the house. He was away from school on summer vacation, spending his holiday laying around and relaxing. He headed out of the beautiful sunlit yard and inside the large, Victorian style house. Proceeding straight through the house, he ended up in the library. He dropped down onto the couch and stretched out, opening his large tomb of a book once again. Although Harry missed his friends in the summer, he enjoyed spending all the time he could with his godfather, the man he loved like a father and best friend all in one. With a deep sigh, Harry settled back down to finish _Advanced Transfiguration: Book Two._

"You know it's not healthy for you to spend all your time in here." Harry looked up and smiled, seeing his grinning godfather standing in the library doorway.

"Actually, it's proven fact that it's unhealthy for me to spend to much time outside." Harry said, grinning back.

"Right, well you don't have to spend your time _reading_." Sirius replied, feigning disgust. "You've turned out to be a bigger bookworm than your mother, which is tough to beat."

"You're back early, the meeting usually takes longer." Harry raised an eyebrow. Sirius met with Dumbledore every summer, and the meeting usually took hours, the main topic of discussion being Harry himself.

"About that..we need to talk." Sirius said, coming inside and taking a seat on the couch across from Harry. Harry's smile faded as he moved to sit up straight. He knew that tone, and Sirius was about to tell him something he didn't want to hear.

"What's wrong?" asked Harry.

"Nothings _wrong, _Harry. We just have to discuss something." Sirius sighed, "We've been expecting this for a while. We can't hide forever Harry. Dumbledore thinks it's time we moved back, he want's to prepare you to fulfill the prophesy."

Harry caught on immediately. How could he not? He'd been secretly dreading this moment for a long time, and he wasn't going to accept it. "Why?" he shouted, jumping up from his seat. "We're fine here! My school is here, my friends are here, EVERYTHING is here!"

"Harry! Calm down!" Sirius shouted over Harry's ranting, standing up and placing his hands on Harry's shoulders. "You can't run from the prophesy. There's no one better to teach you than Dumbledore."

"Why NOW?" Harry said, raising his voice once again. "I'm only going into my third year! You said that I didn't have to go until sixth or seventh!"

"Hogwart's is much bigger than the Academy, you'll make tons of friends in no time. And I'm getting a flat at Hogsmeade, so you can visit me any time."

"You haven't answered my question." Harry replied, sitting back down. Sirius followed suit and retook his seat as well. Harry stared at Sirius, looking for an answer.

"It's not up for negotiation." Sirius stated firmly, "We're moving in a week." With that, Sirius stood and silently exited the room. He really hated to do this to Harry, but he would rather this than see him die at the hands of the Dark Lord, and if Dumbledore thought that Harry was ready to begin training, than he would do it.

Harry was still staring straight ahead in a state of shock. Never had Sirius been this firm about something. Harry always seemed to be able to convince him to a different option. This was too much for Harry to take in all at once. He was leaving everything he knew, moving to a new school, hell, even a new continent.

* * *

Harry watched as Sirius tapped a brick on the wall in the back of The Leaky Cauldron. The bricks opened up immediately, forming a doorway into what Sirius described to him as Diagon Alley. The two wizards stepped through the doorway, hearing the bricks close back behind them as soon as they passed through. Although Harry was still showing no emotion, grudgingly following Sirius as he showed him around London, he had to admit that Diagon Alley was nothing like the Wizard streets in American. He hated to admit it, but these shops looked much bigger and better than anything he had ever seen. 

"Ok, here's your list." Sirius said, producing Harry's letter of acceptance to Hogwarts. "Let's go get your school books first."

Harry remained behind his mask of stone as Sirius led him up the street. The pair were stopped several times before reaching the shop, people shouting out to Sirius and grinning like mad as they rushed over to greet him. It was no surprise to Harry that so many other wizards knew Sirius. Hogwarts was a seven year school, and hence students across 15 different years had seen and known Sirius there. From what Harry could tell from the stories of the Marauders, Sirius and his father had been a popular pair right from their first year, so it was by no means shocking that so many random people off the street would run up and act like seeing him after all these years was a gift from god. After all, Sirius was one of the most likeable you could meet, handsome and funny with mischievous blue eyes. Harry had always secretly admired the way Sirius could get his hair to look perfect without even trying, but asking Sirius if there was any hope for taming his own hair was beyond his dignity, seeing as how Sirius would never stop taunting him about it.

After Sirius had completed his 'catching up' with the various old friends he had encountered, an exasperated, but still grudging Harry followed him into Flourish and Blotts. The shop was beautiful in Harry's eyes, never ending rows of books on every topic you could ever think of. Harry could only curse the shops back in the United States, the biggest of them was only half this size. It was only Harry's years of training at mastering his outward emotions that allowed him to keep up the mask of indifference he wore. On any other day, preferably where he wasn't pissed at Sirius, he would've been running through the aisles. Well, maybe not running, vampires were naturally calm and collected, but he WOULD walk at a brisk pace.

Sirius had always been the only one to see through Harry's masks, not that he needed the ability to know that Harry was itching to thoroughly explore the shop. Harry let out a low, barely audible snarl at seeing the mischief in his godfathers eyes. Sirius put on an extremely bad show of loudly and dramatically proclaiming that they were running late, and needed to hurry. Every person in a ten foot radius of the pair turned to glance at them, hearing Sirius' unusually loud tone. Harry's eyes lit in angry green flame as Sirius walked, at a brisk pace, collecting the books required for third year Hogwarts students.

Sirius inwardly laughed at Harry's seething stare as he sped up even more to get Harry's last required book, _Unfogging the future._ Sirius had always believed that the subject was complete trash unless you were naturally blessed with the rare gift of sight. The mischief in his eyes sparkled even more at the thought of how much it would annoy his godson to have to take it. Harry hated guess work, always focusing on the systematic approach. He recalled the day before when he had helped Harry choose his elective classes, and had subtly suggested divination, saying it was an extremely _interesting _subject. As Sirius reached the decorated corner that focused on divination texts, he spotted a large tomb that had a large picture of The Grim embellished on the front. He suppressed a grin, wondering if his animagus form was a dog because of his unwavering loyalty, like James had suggested, or if it was because of the prank potential in looking like The Grim. I'll have to follow that old bat divination teacher around when I visit Hogwarts, he thought. The thought of how the divination teacher would react to The Grim following her through the halls of Hogwarts was enough to make him break out in hysterical laughter right then and there.

What's got him so happy, Harry thought, as he saw Sirius returning from the far corner of the shop with his divination book in hand. His hurried look was gone, and he looked like he would burst out in laughter at any moment. Harry scowled as Sirius spotted him staring, and schooled his expression into the hurried look once again. He brushed past Harry and dramatically dashed to the check out counter, just barely beating an old man who had been approaching from the opposite direction. He released a large sigh of relief at beating the man to the counter, and once more loudly called out to Harry that they were late, and needed to hurry. Harry's scowl deepened as all of the customers in the area turned to look at him, obviously curious as to who was accompanying the handsome, and extremely loud black haired.

After hurriedly and profusely thanking the store clerk for completing the transaction so quickly, Sirius led a seething Harry back out onto the cobbled street of Diagon Alley. "Well, what do you say we stop for a break and get an ice cream?" he asked innocently, looking sideways at Harry.

"Fine, whatever." Harry mumbled angrily.

"Great!" Sirius said, leading Harry to a nearby ice cream parlor and sitting him down at a table outside. "I'll be right back."

With that, Sirius left to buy the ice cream inside, leaving an extremely disgruntled Harry outside. Harry had always hated being on the butt end of Sirius' jokes, but this was torture! Separating Harry from the largest book store he had ever been in was below the belt, in his opinion. He entertained the idea of just leaving and going back down the street to the store, but Sirius would know exactly where he would be, and he loathed the look of mixed victory and amusement that Sirius would have when he found him. So, he just sat there and entertained himself by spotting strange characters on the street, and trying to figure out just what they were. He had only counted a hag, and what smelled like a werewolf, before his game was interrupted by the feeling of eyes on him. He turned his head to the left and scanned the crowd, looking for the pair of eyes that his vampire instincts had felt focus on him. He didn't have to search far before his gaze fell on the entrance to Flourish and blotts. Just outside, stood a tall, straight backed man, with long white blonde hair and an air of royalty about him. However, this man was looking in the opposite direction, down a dodgy looking street that Sirius had warned him was full of underground dark arts dealings. Quickly losing interest in the man, Harry's gaze fell a little lower to his left side.

The boy looked like an exact copy of the man to his right, except his hair was much shorter and fashionably slicked back. He was about Harry's age with the same straight backed air of royalty that his father gave off, and he was looking straight at Harry. It was obvious that the boy had just come out of the shop behind him, and Harry quickly deduced that he had seen Sirius' scene in the shop. Harry watched as the man, who was evidently the boy's father, muttered a few words to him and took off towards the dodgy looking alley, not even sparing him a second glance. The boy, however, hadn't even shifted his gaze, just gave a short nod of understanding. Not a normal father-son relationship, Harry thought dryly. At least he hadn't taken his son with him into the alley, most likely sparing him from contact with people who were doing things they shouldn't be.

Harry was broken out of his thought process as the boy began to walk through the crowd, straight towards him. He didn't need his vampiric eye sight to see that the boy was as handsome, and impeccably dressed as his father. Well, handsome probably wasn't the right word, handsome described a man, and while this boy held the same superior look as his father had, it didn't mask the young, angelic face behind it. Someone has a serious superiority complex, Harry thought, raising an eyebrow as the boy closed the last few steps between them and stopped.

"Hello." Harry said, his eyebrow still raised as he leaned back in his chair to give himself an extremely calm and comfortable look. He grinned inwardly as he saw the surprised look in the boy's eyes at Harry being unaffected by his superiority.

"Hello. I don't believe we've met, I'm Draco Malfoy." the boy offered his hand, a superior smirk on his face. Harry leaned forward and loosely shook the hand with a relaxed grace, before leaning even farther back into his chair so that it was only sitting on the two back legs. Neither boy spoke, before Malfoy finally broke the silence. "Usually, when someone gives you there name and shakes your hand, you give them your name in return." the boys smirked increased.

"Really?" Harry said, leaning the chair even farther back and lazily draping one arm off the arm rest on the side. "Well I never did believe in those silly old traditions." he casually waved it off and appeared uninterested, shifting his gaze to the right and surveying the street. This had the desired effect on the other boy, and his smirk turned into a scowl.

"I've never seen you before." the boy said, a little coldly. Harry shifted his uninterested eyes to the grey ones of the other boy's, and raised both eyebrows in a 'You must be stupid.' look. Or it could have been a 'Why are you still here?' look, depending on how pissed off the boy was.

"Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you?" Harry responded in the same uninterested voice, before shifting his gaze off of the boy once again. The boy seethed in anger now, his scowl deepening.

"I know everyone of your age in this area. So you're new." the boy said, pride sneaking into his voice. Harry lazily turned his head back to the boy with an exasperated look.

"Yes -- I'm -- New." he replied, sounding out the words slowly as if trying to teach a toddler to speak English. This time, Harry didn't turn away, but stared up at the boy as if to see that the words sunk in.

"So what's your name?" the boy said, gritting his teeth. Harry knew why he was asking. He had obviously grown up in a stuck up pureblood family like Sirius' had been, and a last name would inform the boy of Harry's bloodiness, telling him what insults he should be using. The words mudblood, half-blood, and blood traitor were probably all on the tip of his tongue, and all he needed was the last name in order to use one. Unfortunately for Harry, his last name spoke volumes more than the quality of his blood.

"No, see your not ready for names yet. You need to work your way up from those three letter words." Harry said, still acting as if he were addressing a toddler. At this the boy visibly seethed, his scowl deepening into pure hatred. Harry thought he would blow up at any moment, but he suddenly closed his eyes, relaxing and taking a few breaths before the scowl dropped from his face. Harry's eyebrows shot up again, this time in mild surprise. After a few seconds the boy opened his eyes again, this time just a small frown on his face.

"I just came over here to introduce myself, What's wrong with you?" he asked, the frown deepening. Something deep within Harry told him this was out of character for the boy. Maybe it was his vampire senses, or maybe it was the strange look in the boy's eyes, some shadowed emotion that he couldn't hold back. His face, however, was schooled into a perfect mask of slight disapproval and unhappiness. But the boy was unable to stop the true emotion in his eyes. Somehow, that strange glint in his eyes effected Harry, who slowly dropped his taunting look.

Harry was about to respond with an apology and politely send the boy away, when a hand came down from behind and rested on his shoulder in a familiar fashion. Malfoy scowled, and looked up into the slightly disapproving eyes of Sirius Black.

"You must be the spawn of Lucius Malfoy." Sirius said, in a detached, almost cold tone. It was not a question, but a statement. The young boy's scowl turned into a sneer.

"Very perceptive of you, Black." he responded.

Sirius raised an eyebrow, "I never gave you my name."

"You didn't need to, I've seen your picture. Your mother missed one when she was purifying your residence of all evidence that she gave birth to a blood traitor." the boy sneered.

"I think it would be in your best interest to leave now." the cold in Sirius' voice was unmistakable this time. The boy must have agreed with the statement, because with one last sneer, he turned and walked back in the direction where his father went. Harry and Sirius stood still, watching the retreating form, one burning with an old flame of hatred, and one contemplating the encounter. Before walking around the corner and out of sight, Malfoy gave one last look over his shoulder, locking eyes with Harry. It was only for a split second, but Harry thought he saw the same strange glint in his eye as before. Harry was further contemplating the young thirteen year old boy, when Sirius broke him out of his thoughts by moving and sitting down, handing over one of the ice creams he had in hand.

"Why were you talking to a Malfoy?" Sirius raised an eyebrow at Harry from across the table.

"He came over here to introduce himself." Harry shrugged nonchalantly, licking at his ice cream. Even though his half human blood allowed him to eat, he didn't do it more than a meal a day. He DID have an extremely developed sweet tooth, though. For some reason, Sirius always found this funny, a horrible nasty dark creature loving chocolates and other assorted sweets. But now his expressionless face held no laughter.

"Did you give him your name?" Sirius questioned, to which Harry gave a shake of his head. Sirius sighed out loud. "If he's anything like Lucius, he'll hate you once he knows it. If he asks his father about me, than he'll know who you are soon enough ... What happened?"

"What do you think happened?" Harry said, still nonchalant. "I was in a bad mood, he started talking to me. You know what they say, nothing helps a bad mood like spreading it around."

Sirius chuckled at the reply, and started in on his ice cream as well. The pair quickly finished their ice cream, and Sirius led Harry to the other shops they needed to get to. Harry seemed to give up his grudging attitude, deciding he had tortured his godfather enough. Sirius pointed out several kids he saw that Harry would most likely see at Hogwarts. If the child was with a parent that he recognized, he would inform Harry of the background of the family, and Harry stored the information away for later use. It was almost as if the pair could communicate telepathically, having such a close father-son relationship over the past twelve years. Harry's love and adoration for his godfather was so obvious that it practically radiated off of him. The fact that Harry would only completely let his guard down in the presence of Sirius spoke volumes about the relationship they shared. It was most definitely closer than most father-son type relationships. Most of the time Sirius was like the perfect big brother, and other times he was the wise father, but most of the time he was the kid that liked to plan pranks with his younger godson.

After finally finishing the required shopping, Sirius led Harry back to Flourish and Blotts. The boy smiled in thanks before leaving Sirius at the front and running through the aisles. Well, not running, but walking at a brisk pace. After a while Sirius found Harry in an aisle of books that contained information on various banishing spells. Sirius mentioned that Harry already knew one, and it was in a spell book he had. This led Harry off on a rant about how incompetent the charms professor must be to assign only _Standard Book of Spells: Level Three_ for the entire year. Sirius could only roll his eyes as Harry went on for 15 minutes about how stupid the author of the book must be to think that they could fit a category as large as charms into one book. This was, according to Harry, an idiotic idea at best. As he ranted, Harry led Sirius through the entire store, scanning aisles and grabbing interesting books at random, then throwing them behind him for Sirius to levitate with the rest.

An hour later the pair could be found at a reading table in the store, surrounded by over 10 books. The air between the two was not relaxed.

"It's not like we can't afford it!" Harry argued, "I could steal five times the cost of these right out of the Black fortune vault, and the next time you look, you wouldn't even notice it was gone, much less miss it!"

Sirius sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Harry, what are you going to do with a book titled '_One man's trash is another man's treasure: A listing of forgotten spells previously deemed useless.'_?"

"What's wrong with it?" Harry cried indignantly. "Times are changing! Some of these spells may be much more useful today than they were three hundred years ago! The fire freezing charm was extremely useful in the Salem Witch Trials, but how many people know it today?"

Sirius let out another exasperated sigh, knowing that he couldn't out do his godson's logic, and stood up from his chair, flicking his wand and levitating all of the books in front of him. Harry stood as well, rewarding the action with one of his most angelic and child like smile. Sirius loved to see those smiles from his godson, a look of complete bliss. Harry walked over and warmly hugged his godfather, briefly resting his head on the mans chest and mumbling a quick thanks. Sirius returned the hug with his wandless hand, wrapping his arm around Harry's neck and ruffling his hair and messing it up even more.

After a rather long checkout, during which the clerk kept sending strange glances at Harry, wondering why a little boy was getting such advanced and strange books (including one on banishing charms alone), the pair finally made it back out into the alley. The sun was almost completely gone in the sky, and Harry led Sirius back to the leaky cauldron, having easily remembered the way, and not wanting the large stake of books hovering in front of him if he were to walk behind Sirius, who was lazily levitating the large pile of books, school materials, and Harry's new trunk behind him. Perhaps it was his vampiric nature, or maybe his personality, but Harry enjoyed attention. Actually, he hated it with a passion. Sirius seemed to love it thought, grinning like mad as people sent him incredulous looks at seeing the large stack of objects behind him.

After returning the items to their room, the pair went down to the Leaky Cauldron and took seats at the bar, getting both getting butterbeers, and Sirius getting food, from which Harry would occasionally pick from.

"So, you never told me about the Malfoy's." Harry said, giving Sirius a sideways glance. Sirius shifted, slightly uncomfortable.

"Lucius Malfoy was in Voldemort's inner circle." Sirius said quietly, as if to avoid any eavesdroppers. Harry contemplated this for a few seconds before speaking up again.

"But it's not like you to judge his child like that, just because he's an asshole." Harry said bluntly, obviously confused by Sirius' actions earlier in the day. Sirius answered with the same exasperated sigh.

"You don't know Lucius Malfoy, Harry. He's just the type that would twist and mold his son to be exactly like him, follow his every order, and believe all of his words as the truth. And while his mother wouldn't do that, she would not interfere with it, either. I would place large amounts of money that the boy is exactly like his father. When the next Dark Lord rises, whether it be Tom Riddle, or some other fool, Draco Malfoy will eventually be involved with him. Until that happens, the Malfoy's will continue to act as if their bloodiness makes them superior to all others."

There's much more to Draco Malfoy than being the son of his father, thought Harry, remembering the strange glint in his eye, and the odd, uncharacteristic actions. The meal was finished in quiet contemplation, Sirius slowly eating with a grace that had been forced into him during his childhood, and Harry occasionally picking food off of the plate with his hand. It was Sirius who finally broke the silence, suddenly noticing that the plate was empty, and wondering how long ago the food had been finished. He motioned to the waiter and shoved some coins into his hand, then tapped Harry on the shoulder, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"We have to get up early tomorrow to get to Kings Cross, but we have some time. Do you still want a familiar? Your allowed to have them at Hogwarts." Sirius said, tapping the bricks on the back wall of the small pub, and leading Harry into Diagon Alley once again.

"Really?" Harry looked up, that smile coming to his face again. "Let's go then!"

Sirius laughed as Harry grabbed his arm and pulled him into the magical animal shop that he had noticed earlier while passing by. Sirius grinned at Harry's look of amazement at the shop. There was a giant bird cage just inside, containing over a hundred different Owl's of all types. Harry gawked at the Owl's and Sirius was about to point out a beautiful snowy white owl, when Harry tugged at his arm and dragged him further into the store.

"You don't want an owl?" Sirius questioned curiously. Harry turned to look at him a second, a lopsided smile on his face.

"Naa, everyone has an owl, and they just sleep all the time until you wanna send a letter, then they expect a treat every time they bring you a letter. What kind of familiar only spends a few minutes with you each week?"

Sirius chuckled at Harry's.._different_ outlook on things, and aloud himself to be dragged down a row of assorted rats and other small animals. "So what were you thinking?"

"Umm I dunno.." Harry said distractedly, eyeing a cage filled with magic rats who were making a point of dancing around and showing off to him. His expression turned to one of disgust as he eyed the multi colored mammals. He mentally made a note to never buy a magical rat, and turned his back to them, dragging Sirius even deeper into the shop. Harry was about to bend down to look at a sleek looking cat when he heard the voice.

"_Foolissshh Humanss.."_

The voice was feint, even with Harry's vampiric level of hearing, but it was definitely there. Harry hurriedly dragged Sirius through a maze of Aisles into the back of the shop, where several small cages were stacked. The corner looked unkept, as if no worker had stayed long enough to clean it after feeding the snakes that inhabited the various sized cages. The snakes obviously weren't expecting anyone to come back their, and continued on with their own conversations.

"_We will never see any apart from the one who feedss usss.." _said a venomous looking midnight black snake.

"_We never have before, either..the humanss are foolisssh...flocking to the stupid rodents in the front..." _replied another. These rants went on for a few minutes, during which Sirius watched Harry with a raised eyebrow. Harry was about to tell him what they were talking about, when a new hissing voice caught his interest.

_"All Humanss are not foolisshh...only the oness that placed us here.." _Harry followed the hissing sound to an odd looking orange snake with dark black patterns trailing down it's back. Harry apporached the cage in which the snake was kept in.

"_Hello." _he hissed out at the snake. Most of the other snakes froze at hearing a human speak their language, and time seen to freeze as the only sound was the flicking of tongues as they all smelled the new person in their midst. After a few moments, they all began hissing at once.

"_...human...how...ssssnake talker..."_

"_sssilence.." _Harry hissed out, making all the snakes fall into the same frozen state as before. Harry turned to address the orange snake who had caught his interest, "_What iss your name?"_

_"Sasssha." _came the reply.

"_I am looking for a familiar..perhapss you would be intressted?"_ Harry asked, trying to add a polite tone to his hissing.

"_It would be an honour..sssnake talker."_

_"The name isss Harry."_ he replied as he opened the snake's individual cage, wondering why he seemed to be the only one that was locked in a cage by himself. "_Get on my arm_."

The snake eagerly obliged climbing up onto Harry's arm and slithering through his sleeve, finally wrapping itself partially around Harry's lithe neck and trailing down his should and arm. It's body was a few feet long, with menacing green eyes that almost matched Harry's own. Harry waited for the snake to get situated before he closed the cage and turned around to head to the front of the shop. He only got a step before his eyes met the narrowing blue ones of his godfathers.

"A snake, Harry?" Sirius asked, disbelieving.

"What's wrong with a snake?" Harry replied, defensively. "I can talk to them, it makes perfect sense!"

"Ha-rrrry." Sirius whined, "Why don't we just go get a nice cat or something?"

"You've never been afraid of snakes before.." Harry said, attempting to figure out why his godfather was trying to change his mind.

"I'm not afraid of snakes! But what will the rest of the school think to see the savior of the wizarding world talking to one?" Sirius questioned in a partially pleading voice.

"Well I don't see why it matters. My friends are back in the states, and now I will have someone to talk to for the next 5 years at school." Harry replied, trying to guilt Sirius even more by reminding him that he didn't want to go to Hogwart's at all.

"_The human doessn't like my kind?"_ came the quiet hiss of Sasha from next to Harry's ear, interrupting Sirius' rants on his 'image'.

"_Humanss fear what they do not undersstand." _Harry replied, passing down a cliche, but very true saying to the snake. He didn't want to explain the real reason why Sirius was against her.

"I'm getting her." Harry said loudly, interrupting Sirius' ranting. Harry walked around his godfather, leaving him behind as he walked back to the front, and finally made it through the maze of aisles to the counter.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" the clerk greeted. His words were polite, but the older man behind the counter held a look of annoyance as he occasionally turned his head to shush one of the cats lined up behind him.

"I'd like to make a purchase." Harry said, reaching up and taking Sasha in his hands, then lowering her down to the counter. The clerk let out something similar to a low pitched bird call, and stumbled backwards into the wall. "Is something wrong?" Harry asked politely.

"Are..are you sure you want THAT snake?" the man asked, looking up at Harry. Harry raised an eyebrow and looked down at the snake, then inquisitively back up at the clerk. "That's the only magical snake we have.." he said in a slightly calmer tone.

"Magical? Well what's wrong with that?" Harry inquired. The clerk looked a little uncomfortable, and stiffly took a step closer, lowering his voice.

"Those kinds of snakes are spitters, they produce acid and spit it out as a defense." the clerk said quietly, "This one killed a cat by shooting acid all the way down the aisle. It broke the unbreakable charm and burned straight through the cage." Harry turned his questioning gaze to Sasha, who stared up at him with what could only be an innocent face.

"_The cat wass annoying all of usss..it wass to loud."_ she said. Harry grinned and nodded, looking back up at the clerk, who was now eyeing Harry oddly, most likely wondering what he was nodding at.

"We had to build it's cage out of potion soaked materials so it couldn't break through." the clerk continued, "And these snakes are faster and stronger than they look. Some say they hypnotize their prey when they hunt. I think you should choose a different..."

"No, I like this one just fine." Harry interrupted, smiling. "How much for it?"

* * *

AN: This is my first Fanfic, and the main reason I'm doing it is to improve my writing. I'd like to thank everyone who wrote a review, whether it was criticism or just a pat on the back, I appreciate all of them, so thanks guys ;-) Like I said, if you see errors in my stories, in really helps me out when you tell me by email or in a review. I plan on posting new chapters weekly, and revised chapters whenever people spot problems. 

And about how Harry came to be a vampire, I'm planning on having Harry's past come out more and more in future chapters. Do you guys prefer it like that, or would you rather have the first chapter as a prologue type thing that fills you in on the history? And about Sirius' personality, I'm trying to find a balance between the child like mischief, and the serious personality that takes over when needed, such as dealing with someone like Malfoy.

Also would like to thank 'Tora88' specifically for your review, it helped out alot, and hopefully it's all fixed in this revised chapter. And I fried the Kitty because it seemed like an animal that the snakes wouldn't like, the cuddly type that the humans buy, ignoring the snakes. That, and a combination of my allergy to certain cats :p


	2. Chapter Two

"A wall illusion? How cliche." Harry said, standing just outside of Platform 9 ¾.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "It's cliche because it works, now let's go."

Harry frowned and pushed his cart through the busy crowd of muggles, scowling at a few impolite ones who cut in front of him. He walked straight through the wall without breaking stride, and came to a stop just outside. Sirius appeared a few seconds later, and a smile on his face as he surveyed the familiar looking Hogwarts Express.

"Now just go straight to Dumbledore if you have any problems, he and your house head will be the only one that know about you." Sirius said as the pair approached the train. "Dumbledore thinks it's a good idea to keep your secret to yourself, so don't trust anyone. I don't want to see any articles in the Prophet about it, god knows what kind of stories they would make up."

"Yeah, wouldn't want to ruin my image." Harry said, rolling his eyes. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to be the savior of the wizarding world? I defeat one Dark Lord, and then they expect me to start saving people all the time! And if someone asks for an autograph, I'm gonna hit them with a severing hex."

Sirius froze in place and turned to Harry, "Where did you learn a severing hex?" he asked suspiciously.

"Please, the books at Black Manor are hardly based on disarming spells." Harry replied.

"I forbid you from using that hex." Sirius said a little to loudly, prompting stares from everyone within a few feet. He continued in a much more quiet, but equally stern voice, "You could go to azkaban for using illegal spells like that! What if you missed and instead of someone's hand, you took off their head? You are not to use any illegal curses, understand?"

"Whatever.." Harry said, not making eye contact and making no promises.

"UNDERSTAND, HARRY?" Sirius said loudly. He was obviously already hip to that trick.

"What am I suppose to do if I'm attacked by a giant squid and need to take off some tentacles? Huh? They can grow those back you know! Actually, they're very fascinating creatures, I got a book on them last year. Didn't you say they have one at Hogwarts? I think I'll go see it after I check out that secret passage to Hogsmeade you told me about a few years back...where did that come out, anyways? That candy shop, right? What's that called again?" Harry said, his speaking speed increasing with every word.

"I'm not falling for it, Harry." Sirius said, using the same stern voice that he always used when punishing his godson. "Promise me right now that you wont do anything illegal."

"Fine!" Harry said, throwing his hands up in the air. "But if I'm killed, YOUR explaining to the wizarding world how their savior got disembodied by a squid!"

Sirius eyed him for another few seconds with a stern expression, before a smile broke out on his face and he let out a chuckle. "The candy shop is Honeydukes, but only use that during the night, or you'll get caught for sure. James used to manage it during the day with his old cloak, but you wont be able to." He grinned, motioning for Harry to follow him as he led them up to the train.

"I could, I've been working on that invisibility spell! I've got it memorized and everything, but it's still just making me partially transparent.." Harry started, but was interrupted by the blaring sound of the Hogwarts Express horn.

"Alright, get on before you miss it, and tell me if you meet anyone we know, ok?" Sirius said, hurriedly lifting the opposite sides of Harry's trunk and pushing it on to the train. "I'll be moving to Hogsmeade in a couple weeks, so I'll visit you then, alright?"

Harry started to speak up and answer him, but found himself being pushed on to the train with his trunk. The train began to move, and Sirius grinned widely as he closed the door on Harry before he could get another word out. Harry watched Sirius through the circular window in the center of the door, his godfather getting farther and farther out of sight until the train reached the corner, and his view disappeared completely.

Harry let out a deep sigh, and prepared himself for the coming confrontations. If he was lucky, he could delay them by quickly finding an empty compartment before anyone saw him. This wouldn't be so bad if he had come in first year, at least then he wouldn't be alone in being new. But coming in third year, all the attention would be on him and him alone. He would have every person in the school staring at him as he was sorted. If not because he was joining late, than because of his name.

Pushing the nervous thoughts out of his head, Harry dragged his trunk around the corner and started looking for an empty compartment. Most of the compartments were completely full, all filled with friends chatting about their holidays and all the new things they've bought. Harry recognized several people from his visit to Diagon Alley, and quickly ran over everything Sirius had said about them. The information would all come in handy eventually. He found a compartment of what could only be a meeting of the school Prefect's, judging by the stuck up way they pushed out their chests to display the silver badges they wore. Harry was beginning to think that he might have to actually go into a half full compartment and _introduce_ himself. Then the occupants of the compartment would bombard him with questions about who he is and why they had never seen him before. To Harry, this was something to avoid. Not because he thought he might embarrass himself, but because being asked stupid questions was highly annoying, and would fit in the same torturous category as being pushed through a book store at a brisk pace without any time to browse.

He had almost lost all hope, when he came upon the last compartment. The compartment was almost completely empty, only having one inhabitant. Harry studied the man through the door window, a smile spreading out on his face. So THIS is what Sirius meant by people we know, Harry thought. The man appeared to be sleeping, and his bedraggled appearance and tacky robes only supported the fact. His face was hidden, leaning into the side window with his cloak hood pulled up. But Harry didn't need to see the man's face to know who it was. In fact, he didn't NEED to see the man at all, the scent was all to familiar.

Harry silently slid the compartment door open and dragged his trunk in to the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click. Placing the trunk on against the side wall, Harry took a step closer to the man. His mind scrolled over an entire list on ways that he could wake the man, most being unpleasant to say the least. Harry had just chosen a good freezing charm to use, and was trying to remember a thawing charm to defrost the man's lower half once he was awake, when he was caught by surprise.

"I wouldn't if I were you. Unless you want to lose points for your house before your even in one." he said, his slumped form still unmoving.

Harry grinned and slipped his wand back up his sleeve, then rushed forward to wrap the man in a hug. "What are you doing here Moony?" he asked.

Remus Lupin straightened himself up in the seat and returned the hug whole heartedly. "Not happy to see me Harry?"

"Of COURSE I am!" he exclaimed into Remus' robes. He smiled and slid in to the seat next to the man. "How did you know it was me?"

"That was easy," Remus smiled back. "Your not the only one with a good nose. You always smell strongly of whatever type of sugar you happen to be eating at the time."

Harry grinned and produced a half eaten muggle candy bar out of his jacket pocket, opening it up and taking a bite. "Want some?" he said, his mouth full of chocolate as he offered the bar to Lupin.

"Don't you eat anything else?" Remus asked, looking over at the chocolate in Harry's hand. "Sugar seems to be the only thing you ever consume."

"No it isn't, it's just that the other stuff goes bad every time I try to save some for later." Harry said, wrinkling his nose up at the thought. "But you didn't answer my question, why are you here?"

"What? Didn't Sirius tell you?" Remus raised an eyebrow. Harry shook his head a couple times with a questioning look on his face. "I guess he wanted it to be a surprise."

"Well why else wouldn't he tell me? He obviously wasn't trying to keep it a secret, because you're here, and I always find those out eventually anyways. So what is it?" Harry said impatiently.

"Dumbledore asked me to come and fill the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position." Remus stated, a small smile playing across his lips.

"Oh, well that explains a lot." Harry said, sitting back in his seat.

"What do you mean?" Remus questioned, looking sideways at Harry.

"I'm not stupid, you know?" Harry said, looking back at Remus indignantly. "Dumbledore tries to get me to come back to Hogwarts every year. I've been wondering why Sirius suddenly decided to make me go this year. I wouldn't put it past the old man to do something like that so he could get me over here.."

"You know that's not the reason, Harry. Dumbledore cares about your happiness, and he wanted to let you stay, but you need to start preparing for times ahead." Remus stated calmly.

"I wish I could believe that." Harry said, a far off tone in his voice. "But whether I trust someone or not is just not my decision. I've only met Dumbledore a few times, and I can't just trust someone I don't know."

An easy silence fell over the compartment. Harry had always loved talking to Remus, and the silences that followed were comfortable, both wizards getting lost in their own thoughts. Sirius was always fun to be with, no matter what, but Remus was so much more like him. The werewolf would stop by fairly frequently during the summer, sometimes bringing a book that he thought Harry might like. The two would have frequent debates on various matters concerning the Ministry, usually coming to the conclusion that the only way to fix things was to elect someone who wouldn't be influenced by money and bribes.

"Harry, there's a snake around your neck." Remus said, as calm as ever.

"Oh yeah, you haven't been introduced. This is Sasha." Harry grinned, nodding slightly towards where the orange and black snake was draped down his arm. The snake woke to hiss a quick hello, which Remus obviously couldn't understand, before dropping back off into a silent sleep.

"I imagine Sirius wasn't to happy about that." Remus said, giving a small smile.

"Yes, evidently having a poisonous snake and talking to it just doesn't fit in with my new image." Harry shrugged. "I suppose my label will be changed from 'Hero' to 'Next Dark Lord' as soon as they see Sasha, but I think I could live with that. Just think, I could rule the world. Wouldn't that be the coolest?"

Harry gave a lopsided smile, to which Remus chose to ignore with a shake of his head. Harry grinned and took out his copy of _Hogwarts, A History_. Maybe this school year wont be so bad if Moony is going to be there, he thought. Things had gone from 'Complete Disaster' to 'Livable, but Terribly Depressing'.

* * *

Ron Weasley sat at the Gryffindor table in the great hall, impatiently waiting for the feast to begin. In the two seats to his left, sat his best friends, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas. The three Gryffindor's were all catching up on what they had done over the summer holiday. Ron was bewildered by his two friends talk of muggle things. Dean being muggle born, and Seamus being half muggle, they both knew a lot about the way muggles do things. Ron had always felt left out when the two engaged in a conversation concerning muggle things, which was really quite frequent. Ron had begun drifting more and more to joining Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger in friendly discussion, although now he avoided it, noticing the overwhelmed look on Neville's face as he listened to Hermione go a mile a minute about the new classes she would be taking this term.

Across the hall, on the opposite side of the Gryffindor table, was the Slytherin table, at which sat Draco Malfoy. Opposite Malfoy, sat Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson. The two were eyeing Draco strangely, silently conversing about him in worried tones. The two were Draco's best friends, and were extremely concerned about his odd behavior of late. The Malfoy heir had been strikingly silent the entire day, spending the train ride in complete silence as all the others around him spoke in excited tones about what they had bought during the holidays.

Draco, however, had no idea that his friends were talking about him. This was uncharacteristic in itself, seeing as how the Slytherin always seemed to be looking for back stabbers. The boy was eyeing the great hall with a sweeping gaze, as if searching for something particular. Draco frowned as he finished his third sweep of every person in the hall, and couldn't find who he was looking for. Perhaps he would come in with the first years? He couldn't have been visiting the day before the new term starts, could he? His accent was slightly off, mostly British but a little bit of something else mixed in.

The blonde haired boy shook the thoughts away, realizing he was almost obsessing over the boy. There was just something different about him. Sure, he was a pretty face, but that wasn't what had compelled Draco to go introduce himself the day before. When he had first seen the boy in Flourish and Blotts with his father, he had been instantly entranced with him. The boy was visibly fuming, shooting dark looks at Black every few seconds. Maybe it was the way his green eyes seemed to burn in anger every time he scowled in Black's direction, or maybe it was the way he seemed to be so 'aware' of his surroundings. It was like he was in tune with everything. As if he knew exactly what was going to happen, and every one of his actions was like a strategical chess move. Whoever he was playing chess against had Draco's sympathy, because you could almost taste the confidence that dripped off of the boy, it was so potent in the air around him.

It was these characteristic's that compelled Draco to go introduce himself. Yet, when he spoke to the boy, he started to believe that he was imagining things. The boy he spoke to was nothing like the boy that he had witnessed leaving Flourish and Blotts. This boy had confidence, but it wasn't the same, it was _over_ confidence. This boy didn't seem in tune with anything, his actions were all subconscious as he tried to get more comfortable in his char. Actually, getting more comfortable seemed to be the only thing he DID care about, because he certainly didn't care about meeting Draco. Of all the people Draco had met, the one he actually wants to meet doesn't seem to really care. In fact, he seemed annoyed that Draco was even standing there. Perhaps it was this change that had him thinking about the boy through half of the train ride that day. The boy seemed to have two different personalities.

Mean while, on the other side of the hall, no one seemed to be paying any attention to the youngest male of the Weasley clan. Ron was pretending to listen to Lee Jordan tell his brothers about something to do with quidditch, but had taken to just sitting there and rubbing his empty stomach. It was times like this that he wished he had extra money to throw around, maybe then he could buy something off that lady with the cart.

After what seemed like forever, but had actually only been about five minutes, the door to the great hall opened. Professor McGonagall carried a small stool in one hand, and the ragged looking sorting hat in the other. Behind McGonagall, came a fairly long like of first years, who all seemed to be nervously fidgeting, while trying to look invisible at the same time. McGonagall carried out the tradition of the sorting just like it had been done the last two years, the first of which being Ron's own sorting. Ron could still remember the intense relief he had felt at finding out that the sorting could not cause great bodily harm, as his brothers had suggested.

So just like every year, the hat did it's little song thingy about uniting the houses, and then the names were read out, at what in Ron's opinion was, a painfully slow rate. Everyone at the table seemed to be pleased that the sorting was over so they could finally eat, but then, just when everyone would prefer that the tradition be continued exactly so that the food would finally appear, it changed. McGonagall made no move to remove the stool or the hat, but instead stood there, a stern expression on her face that commanded silence. Once the hall was completely quiet, she spoke out in a loud, stern voice.

"We have one more student to sort before we are finished. The student will be joining the Third year, and must now be sorted." McGonagall said, allowing a silent pause before she continued. "Harry Potter!" she read out.

Half the people in the hall gasped at the name, while the other half remained completely silent in surprise. The student's had no time to begin the normal murmuring that would take place on such an occasion, because just then, the doors to the hall opened. The figure of Harry Potter stepped through the entrance, the door softly closing behind him as started down the hall, walking with an elegance all his own. It wasn't the kind of elegance that a rich pureblood would have, definitely not an elegance fit for royalty. No, this was an elegance that had no name, an elegance that could not be described, something that you need to see for yourself to understand. The boy never broke stride, never changed pace, and never moved his gaze from the stool directly ahead of him. He was about average height for his age and mostly straight backed, not overly, but a natural type that looked comfortable. And even though he seemed to be completely focused on the stool, it was as if he could see everything in the room, and was aware of every movement, whether it be an involuntary gasp, or a nervous twitch. All of these attributes combined gave the boy an astounding aura of confidence that could never be mistaken as false.

But once you looked past all of that, the boy looked normal enough. He had a slim figure that would have been almost feminine if it weren't for the way he carried himself. His raven black hair fell down over his ears in mussed locks, the complete opposite of the popular slicked back style. His face was perfectly shaped, with milky white, non-blemished skin that seemed untouched since birth. The long lashes that fell over his jade green eyes added to the weak, feminine look that his physical appearance gave off. But for everything about his physical appearance that made him appear weak, there were ten more things about his actions that made him appear powerful. The biggest thing being his eyes, they seemed to almost glow with green fire, and a few students found themselves wondering if he had used a charm on them and they actually WERE glowing.

Yet through all this, he presence didn't really seem _threatening._ He didn't give the dramatic show that Snape did, robes billowing and scowl in place. His face showed no threat, his relaxed stare giving off nothing that resembled negativity. He looked comfortable. Comfortable with his surroundings, and supremely confident in himself.

He wore a black cloak with the hood down, the bottom slightly sweeping the floor below him. Upon approaching the stool, his head inclined in a slight nod to the Headmaster, who peered back down at the boy, his eyes twinkling like mad over his half moon glasses. Harry took his seat on the stool, remaining as confident as ever as McGonagall slipped the hat over his head with a raised eyebrow.

Harry felt the hat slip down on his head, stopping with the brim just covering his eyes.

"A very tough decision here..very tough indeed.." came a small voice in the back of Harry's mind. "Been practicing Occulmency for a while, hmm? Very strong mind indeed."

"Let's get this over with, Hat. I don't want to be sitting here like an idiot all day." Harry grumbled in his mind.

"Patience is a virtue my dear..but then again, you already know that, don't you? You can't fool me deary, everything is up here in your mind..." the voice trailed off, lost in thought. "And stop messing around and trying to force me out, this isn't legilimens you know."

"Put me in Hufflepuff if you want, just do it in the next thirty seconds." Harry said.

"No..I sense trait's of every house in you, but Hufflepuff is the least pronounced...no I think you would do better in Gryffindor, or perhaps Slytherin."

"Slytherin? Well it might be worth it, for the Screamer I'll get from Sirius.." Harry mused, half talking to the hat and half to himself.

"Hmm, yet Gryffindor would be better in the end.." the hat contemplated.

"Yes, having the 'Hero' in Gryffindor would bring hope to the wizarding world. Much better than having another dark wizard around."

The voice giggled in the back of Harry's mind, "Very intelligent indeed..yet deep inside, hidden below all else, a thirst to make your godfather proud...yes, and bringing the hidden fear into consideration, it'll have to be --"

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hate proclaimed out loud, inducing a large round of cheers from the Gryffindor table.

Harry winced under the hat, the loud cheers reverberating off the wall's and pounding at his sensitive ears. McGonagall removed the hat, and Harry's eyes shot straight to the Gryffindor's, clapping and cheering like mad. He stood up from the old stool with the same elegance as before, proceeding to the Gryffindor table. As he got closer, he began to wonder if that hat had somehow managed to addle his mind, because he would have to be insane to join this loud, cheery, talkative bunch of blind fools. By the time he reached the table, he was cursing the hat to the seventh level of hell.

Harry slid in to a vacant seat near the end of the table, still trying to block out the loud cheering. All of the Gryffindor's eyed him as he sat down, and the resulting feeling was strangely unsettling. Normally, Harry wouldn't be afraid of something without cause. These Gryffindor's weren't about to attack him, so why did he even _care_ that they were looking at him? The nervous feeling was extremely uncomfortable as it spread from the pit of his stomach, but he found it easy to ignore, and made sure that his mask didn't slip at all.

At this, the Headmaster began his speech, which was surprisingly short. But then again, the old man never seemed to say much, even though he probably knew ten times more about something than he ever let on. The man knew entirely to much for his own good. Sirius would always tell Harry that he was the incarnation of Dumbledore, yet Harry had never detected any resemblance between himself and the overly jovial old wizard.

As soon as the food appeared, Harry was bombarded with questions, to which he gave one word answers where ever possible. Eventually the Gryffindor's shied away from his abrasive attitude and left him to his peace. Harry played with the food on his plate for a while, pushing it around with his fork. He eventually gave up on pretending to eat, and spent his time listening to the various conversations until the desert appeared. He assumed correctly in thinking that he was the main topic of discussion at the table, but was surprised that none of the Gryffindor's seemed to hate him. In fact, they were all wondering if he was just annoyed with something, or was having a bad day, never suspecting that one of their own could just be an evil and rude person.

The desert's finally arrived, and Harry immediately searched the table for a good sugar based one before filling his plate with it and gleefully feeding his addiction. Harry caught a few comments about his eating habits, but most people at the table didn't judge him. He felt the eyes of the other houses on him as well, but his senses were to jumbled up in the packed room to pinpoint who was who, and he took to listening to tidbits of conversations at the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, the Slytherin being to far away to make out with all the sound in the hall.

Just as Harry was going for his third plate of whatever multicolored sugary candy he was eating, the desert disappeared, and he gave a small sigh of disappointment. He allowed the Prefects to round everyone up before he left the table, and was the last Gryffindor out of the hall. He walked by the wall as he followed the pack of Gryffindors through the castle, his movements gave off no sound, and the shadow wrapped a protective cloak around him, leaving only his outline visible.

Everyone in the Gryffindor common room eyed him as he walked through the portrait, but it already seemed to be common knowledge that he was not approachable at present time. He quickly moved up the stairs to the door marked Third Year Boys, and walked in. The other four boys were already in the room, and their conversations ceased as Harry walked in. Once they found that Harry would not be speaking to them, they began to talk again in murmuring tones, but mostly stayed silent as he changed and slid in to his four poster, closing the hangings around him. Out of pure habit, Harry hit the surrounding hangings with a powerful and complicated locking charm. Feeling secure in the knowledge that no one in entire house could even have a chance at breaking the locking charm unless they knew which one he used, Harry cleared his mind and drifted off in to a cold vampiric sleep.

* * *

Draco Malfoy was still being uncharacteristically silent as he sauntered in to the great hall, his large, bulky, and presently confused cronies Crabbe and Goyle walking at his side. Draco was still deep in thought about Harry Potter, his eyes holding a far away look as he took a seat at the Slytherin table and began piling random food on to his plate. Harry was still confusing him immensely, seemingly slipping back in to his original personality the night before. Draco smiled at the way Harry had slightly overacted as he was walking down the hall. He was probably the only one that noticed it because he had something to compare it to, but Harry was a little bit more elegant than he had been that day in Flourish and Blotts.

Of course, Draco had been extremely shocked at hearing the name of his recent obsession. He understood why Harry hadn't told him his name in Diagon Alley. Draco had thought that he must have been a mudblood, but he knew now that the boy obviously had other reasons for hiding his name. Draco had thought long and hard the night before, and came to the conclusion that he wouldn't judge Harry by his past. The boy seemed to shy away from all attention given to him, the complete opposite of the idiot DADA teacher they had last year.

Draco searched the hall for Harry, only half expecting him to be there. The Gryffindor's were usually the last in the hall for breakfast, but Harry was nothing like the others in that house, was he? It certainly didn't seem like it. As it turned out, Harry was one of the few people already at the Gryffindor table. The boy was sitting alone reading a book, ignoring all the food surrounding him. The Granger girl spotted him as she entered the hall, curiosity coming to her face as she approached Harry and took the seat next to him. She glanced at the page and a warm smile spread to her face. The nerdy girl began talking to him at rapid speeds, the topic evidently being the book. Draco figured that Harry would shut out the girl, just like he seemed to be doing with the rest of the school, but he looked on as Harry first raised an eyebrow at the girls rambling's, and then let a small smile come to his face as he began talking back to the girl.

Draco was surprised at the sudden friendliness Harry was showing to the girl. Well, not quite friendly, but definitely better than the neutral personality he seemed to have the might before. Draco wanted to keep watching, but was rudely broken out of his thoughts as a schedule was shoved in his face by one of the more rude Slytherin prefects. He scowled at the offending fifth year, and took a look at his schedule. He smiled widely as he read it, scaring half the Slytherin table in to shock with the even more uncharacteristic action. Much to his joy, he had DADA with the Gryffindor's first.

Draco checked the time, and jumped up from his seat, deciding that he would be the first one to DADA class. He wanted to get in the new professors good graces, and maybe find out what the lesson would be for the day. He could study up on whatever they were doing in the next half hour, and show off with his superior knowledge. Although he never even told Blaise and Pansy, this was his secret to success in potions. He was naturally good at the work, but the theory behind it all was memorized right before the lesson.

As it turned out, Professor Lupin seemed to be nice enough, but when he asked what the lesson would be on, the bedraggled man just gave a small smile and tell him it was a surprise. The slightly mysterious was he said it sparked intrigue in Draco, but instead of wasting time pondering on it, he opened his DADA book and began to skim through it. Students slowly trickled in to the room and took seats with their friends. Every time Draco heard someone entering, he would look up and see if it was Harry, but the boy never showed. It was only when class started and Lupin called roll did he find that the boy was already and had come in without Draco's knowledge. He was seated in the back corner, Gryffindor's taking seats around him and trying to spark the same interest in him as Granger had at breakfast. But one conversation seemed to be enough for him, because he ignored most students, sending amused looks at people every once in a while at a student who made an incorrect statement, or made poor attempts as sounding smart like Granger always did.

"Please take out your wand and follow me, we will be doing a practical lesson today." Lupin said, causing the entire class to light up in excitement.

Lupin led the class out of the classroom, leading them down a series of unfamiliar twisting corridors. Draco noticed that Harry seemed to lag a little behind and to the side, sinking in to the slight shadow that was by the wall. The Professor led the curious students in to a room that Draco recognized as the staff room that Snape had led him to once in his second year. The room was now vacant except for Snape, most teachers having classes at the time. Snape made a few scathing comments before exiting the room, sending a slight nod at Draco, and a strange, unreadable look at Harry, who had been last in the room. Snape shut the door with a loud slam, and the class now looked curiously at Lupin.

"It seems the cupboard here in the staff room has been inhabited by an unwelcome visitor since sometime over the summer. Professor Snape seemed to be looking forward to removing it, but was nice enough to allow my third year class to give it a try." Lupin smiled, and walked over to the cupboard, giving it a strong kick near the bottom. Most students in the room gasped and stepped back when the cupboard began to shake a little to violently. The shaking stopped abruptly after a few seconds, and Lupin took a step away. "Now who here know's what a boggart is?"

Draco listened on with interest as Lupin went into a short lecture about boggart. The creature sounded extremely fascinating to Draco, who had been trained since birth to fear nothing. He grinned as he watched Weasley shudder upon hearing that boggart took the form of your greatest fear.

"Now, who would like to help me demonstrate?" Lupin asked. Most of the class shied away, scared of being the first to go and embarrassing themselves. However, it was then that Harry stepped out of his silent corner, and gave Lupin a smile. The smile dropped of Lupin's face, and he gave Harry a slight shake of his head.

"I know what your thinking, and I don't even know what he looks like." Harry said plainly, answering the silent question and confusing the entire class at the same time. Lupin gave Harry a nod and a slightly apprehensive smile before taking a step to the side, allowing Harry to move directly in front of the cupboard.

"Ready?" Lupin asked, a slightly unsure tone in his voice. Harry assumed a stance, wand arm raised, and gave a nod. Every student in the class held their breath as Lupin murmured a spell and blew the cupboard doors wide open, and Harry stepped out of the confined space.

Draco looked at the figure of Harry Potter, standing there in front of the open cupboard, his eyes locked on the real Harry. This new Potter was exactly the same, except he wore no Gryffindor tie, and his robes bore no Hogwarts insignia. The new Harry's face gave off a completely relaxed feeling, his eyes closed with a peaceful look. Draco's eyes flipped back to the real Harry, and for the first time, it appeared that the boy had not expected this new turn of events. Harry's wand arm dropped back to his side, a surprised look coming to his face as his eyes widened slightly. The surprised look didn't last though, and a flash of realization passed of Harry's face, closely followed by his eyes widening even more.

Draco and the rest of the class looked on, and for the first time, Harry was not be in control. His pose was stiff, his face unrelaxed, and his eyes no longer held the same intensity, but were now a dull green. His confidence had evaporated in to nothingness. The class watched on in confusion, their eyes flipped between the relaxed but fake Harry, and the shocked and apprehensive one. This boggart seemed to have reversed Harry's emotions, and only Lupin seemed to understand what was happening, a look of extreme concentration and worry on his face as he slipped out his wand.

Just as Lupin was about to step forward, it happened. Suddenly, the fake Harry's eyes SHOT open! But instead of the green emerald intensity that was suppose to be there, the eyes were BLOOD red, hot fire burning inside them. The entire class took shocked and fearful steps back until they hit the wall behind them, even Harry and Lupin each taking a step. The boggart Harry's eyes seemed to glow with an evil burning intensity, and his face shaped in to a twisted smile. The long eyelashes that had adorned the boggart Harry's face were now gone, and the burning red in it's eyes was now spreading like a pool of blood, taking up the entire pupil.

The boggart took a step forward, and Harry held his ground, wand arm twitching as he seemed to be thinking of what to do with the 'Ridiculous' spell he needed to use. Just then, a low hissing began emanating from the boggart mouth, and Harry's eyes widened even farther as he took another step backwards, fear flashing across his face once more. The low hissing sound continued, and the boggart Harry took another step forward, slipping his wand out of his sleeve as he did.

A magic induced gust filled the room, all centering on the boggart Harry. It almost seemed as if he were building up his power, his blood red eyes now unmistakably glowing with the intense murderous fire within them. The boggart was just raising his wand to cast a spell on the frozen form of the real Harry, when Lupin stepped in. The Professor stepped between Harry and the boggart, and with a loud pop, the gust was gone, and the boggart was now in the form of a glowing orb. Lupin sent a spell at the eerily floating orb, effectively forcing it back in the cupboard. Firing off another spell, he closed and locked the doors.

As Draco turned back to Harry, he found that the shock must have worn off, because even though his confidence was still absent, his expression was neutral.

"Class dismissed, we will continue this lesson next time." Lupin said, looking much older than he was.

The class shuffled out of the room, conversing in hushed whispers about the scene that had just took place. Draco took one last look at Harry, who was now conversing with Lupin in low voices on the opposite side of the room. Draco watched for as long as he could without looking suspicious, and then left a few seconds after the last person was gone. Crabbe and Goyle flanked his sides as soon as Draco was out of the room, and he sped up his footsteps so he could listen to the confused students ahead.

No one appeared to know for sure what had happened, but there was mostly guesses that Harry had some secret twin brother that was deep in the Dark Arts, and was out to kill him. Draco felt that this idea was preposterous, but as he walked back to the Slytherin common room, he found that he could find no better explanation than what the others had come up with.

* * *

AN: I hope you guys liked this chapter, I ended up finishing earlier than I thought. I hope I didn't make any of the same mistakes as I did in the last one :P

Anyways, what did you think? Did you like or dislike the way that the point of view changes between Draco, Harry, and a little bit of Ron, or did you just find it confusing? Also, do you like the direction the plot is headed?


	3. Chapter Three

Harry walked calmly down the slightly over grown path, steadily moving deeper and deeper in to the foreboding forest. The hunger pains had started this morning, and Harry needed to feed. He could have put it off until it was completely dark out, but the sun was about to set, and the semi darkness, mixed with his speed, was enough to slip in to the forest unseen. Besides, he needed to get out and keep his mind off things for a while. The stares were coming even more ever since the boggart incident two days ago. Apparently, Harry had an evil twin brother who had been trained in the Dark Arts by Voldemort himself, and is now out to get him.

Harry pushed the thoughts out of his mind and turned all of his focus on to his surroundings. He made no noise, his breathing controlled and his steps light as he moved towards the small pond that Sasha had told him about. The snake had been exploring and hunting in the forest every day, but would always return before Harry went to sleep, curling up on the pillow by his head. His dorm mates, as expected, had been surprised by the snake, to say the least. Harry had calmly explained to them that the snake was not evil, and was his familiar, so they better get used to it. The explanation didn't really help, so he had shut the hangings to his bed and locked himself and Sasha inside for the night.

Harry's mind popped back to the present as he came upon the pond he had been searching for. The shadows of the dank forest were protectively wrapped around him, completely hiding his physical presence from the world. He looked to the pond and found a medium seized deer lapping up water from the opposite side of the pond. The fangs painfully shot out of Harry's gums, sensing the coming meal. The light in Harry's jade eyes tripled in intensity and cast an eery green glow over his face. Harry could see like it was broad daylight, and his fangs were now lowered completely, ready to absorb the fresh blood.

Just as Harry began to step out of the shadow, the stag's head shot up, obviously catching his scent. The deer definitely wasn't waiting to see who it was. It shot off with an incredible speed, expertly dodging trees as it ran through the densely forested area. Harry didn't hesitate at all, and shot off after the deer. He had to run around the murky, bog like pond, unwillingly giving the deer a head start. He turned the corner and took off after the deer, tracing it only by scent, because it was now completely out of sight. The ground scrolled under Harry's feet as he moved with agility far beyond what any human could master. To any outsider, Harry was only a passing blur of movement as he wove in and out of the dark tree's in his path..

Although the stag was still running wildly through the forest at top speed, it was painstakingly easy for Harry to close the gap between them. With a practiced ease, Harry grabbed the stag by it's antlers, bringing it to a full stop and breaking it's neck all in one fluid motion. With a soft thud, the lifeless body of the reddish brown stag fell to the ground, it's dead eyes still showing the shocked expression it had worn in it's last seconds. Harry dropped to his knee's and forcefully brought his head down to the stag's neck, and sinking his fangs straight in to the jugular. Harry slurped at the artery with an animalistic fever, never coming up for air until he could feel that he was full, the fresh blood coursing through his veins with a renewed vigor.

Harry's fangs retracted back and the glow in his eyes faded out in to the normal level. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve, eyeing his blood soaked robes in disgust. He slipped off his robes, shortly followed by the t-shirt he was wearing underneath. Slipping out his wand, he held out the clothes in his free hand and began casting cleaning charms on them. Once cleaning off the offending items, making sure he didn't miss anything, he slipped them back on and started walking back from where he had come from, following his scent so he wouldn't get lost.

The sun was now completely set, and the sky was now completely black, angry storm clouds looming in the distance. Harry could hear the movements of creatures all around him, most nocturnal creatures just waking up and leaving their nests to start the hunt. The tree's creaked threateningly at Harry as he calmly walked past, his eyes flashing at any tree that began moving it's branches towards him. The forest was so densely populated with the tree's that if they tried to turn on him, his only chance would be to take off at top speed and hope he can dodge every branch that comes at him.

Harry was half way out, almost back to the murky pond, when he heard a rustling to his right. He froze in mid ste. He had been hearing sounds like that around him all night, but this one was much closer. He slipped his wand out of his sleeve, preparing for any chance of a confrontation. The rustling sound grew closer, and Harry could only step back as a giant spider scuttled in to the path ahead of him, eyeing him with all eight of it's ugly eyes. Harry's eyes flashed menacingly, bringing his wand arm up in to a defensive stance. The spider was in his path, and he wasn't sure what he could do to remove it. Surely a stunner wouldn't work, would it? He had no clue what magical properties the spider held. But he did know that it was a spider, and spider's are much faster and stronger than their size gives away. Harry was sure he could outrun it, the giant of a spider couldn't use his full speed in an area so densely packed with obstacles, could he? Harry couldn't risk the chance, so he stood still, hoping that Sirius would forgive him for breaking his promise about illegal spells if the spider attacked.

"My children have informed me that a strange creature has invaded the forest, yet you look, and most certainly act, like a human." it growled out, it's eyes narrowing on the wand and it's pinchers repeatedly snapping together. "What are you?"

"I am many things, none of which are any business of yours." Harry said in a carefully measured, neutral voice, not moving at all to acknowledge the threatening move made by the spider.

"All who enter my territory are my business." It said, scuttling a little closer. "I am afraid, you will not live past this night."

In that moment, Harry realized he had been focusing so hard on the monstrosity in front of him, that he had not noticed the scuttling of movement all around him. But now it was to late to do anything, the area around him was covered in thick webbing, effectively blocking any hope of escape that he had. The spiders had obviously witnessed his speed, and were not taking any chances. He was now enclosed in their trap, and although he was confident in his ability with a wand, he knew one spider 'egg' could hatch hundreds of them, and this spider appeared old, how many eggs had been hatched in this forest? If he took this spider out, how many would come down on him to avenge their leader?

"I mean you no harm," Harry said, attempting to talk his way out of the situation. "I was not aware of your presence in this area, I will avoid entering from now on."

At this, the spider let out a low growling noise that sounded almost like a laugh. "I cannot deny my children a free meal when it so willingly enters my domain. What could you possibly offer us?"

Deciding that he had only one more option, Harry took a deep breath, and stared straight in to the monster's eight beady eyes. He allowed the light in his jade eyes to flow out to their full potential, and they glowed menacingly, the intense light almost completely blinding the spider, inducing a scuttle backwards in surprise. He knew that this was his last chance at escape, and so he spoke out in a venomous tone, "I can offer you life."

"You cannot offer us what we already posses." The spider grunted out, attempting to see through the blinding green light.

"Allow me to reword that." Harry said, "I will spare your lives."

At this, the spiders all around Harry began scuttling closer, snapping their pincers menacingly at the death threat to their leader and themselves. The leader made a low grunting noise, silencing them, before looking back to the green light. "You will kill us all? I hold no fear of your kind."

"Are you so sure?" Harry said, and then he continued in parseltongue, hissing in the same menacing manner, "_Sasshaa come quickly_. Every spider around him scuttled backwards, recognizing the hissing sound for what it was and eyeing him fearfully. The fangs shot out of his gums once more, and Harry let out a vampiric hiss, flashing his fangs in plain sight. "Do you fear my kind?" Harry rasped out.

The enormous spider in his path was the only one that seemed able to even partially pull himself together, the others backing away several yards, losing faith in seeing the fear that loomed in the eyes of their leader . "You cannot stand against us all." he growled out.

But just a second after the spider had spoken, a low, pain filled grunt came from one of the spiders surrounding them, and it dropped dead, acid burning at it from behind and rapidly eating through it's insides. "I will not be alone in standing against you. My kind do not take kindly to threats against their own." Harry bared his fangs again, and let out another hiss as he took a step closer.

Another grunt of pain sounded out, closely followed by the familiar sound of a dead body hitting the ground. The leader backed away from Harry's step forward, and two more bodies fell dead. Harry's eyes flashed once more, and he murmured an incantation under his breath, directing the point of his wand straight in to the air. A fierce white light exploded from the tip, only lasting for a second, but momentarily blinding every spider in sight. This was the breaking point, and the spider's broke out in to a full panic, all scuttling around the webs and shooting away at top speed in the direction from which the leader had come. The leader, who was left forgotten in the panic, began climbing a web behind him, leaving the trap that had enclosed him with Harry.

"_Immobulus!" _Harry shouted, pointing the wand at the grizzly old spider and putting far more energy in to the spell than he would have for a normal human. The spider froze where it was, still climbing backwards towards the top of the web. Harry approached the beast, his eyes flashing in anger. The old spider eyed him with a fearful look in his eyes as Harry stopped less than a yard away from him, a tear of saliva dripping from one of his pearly white exposed fangs. "You must know I am a student at the school. Dumbledore has so graciously allowed your pitiful existence in this forest, and this is how you treat him for his over trusting gesture?"

The fear in the spider's eyes intensified, but the curse on him would not allowed him to respond. Harry shook his head in disgust, "_Incendio." _he whispered. The giant of a spider erupted in fire, the hot blue flames licking away at him and spreading over his body at a painfully slow speed. Harry felt the familiar spark of pain as he retracted his fangs, and sparing no second glance to the burning spider in front of him, he turned and walked out through the hole Sasha had burned in to the web.

"_Are you unharmed?" _Sasha hissed out, slithering up his leg.

"_Yes."_ Harry answered shortly.

Sasha was surprised by Harry's strange rudeness to her, but rested on Harry's shoulders, staying silent as Harry picked up his trail again and began calmly walking out of the forest.

As he walked, the glow in Harry's eyes slowly lowered back to normal, and as his mind cleared, he thought about what he had just done. He could have let the spider go, it wouldn't have bothered him again. Yet he didn't. He spared it no mercy, not even a quick death. He had killed the monster in cold blood, and he had actually _enjoyed_ it. He had felt the exhilaration in the pit of his stomach as he cast that spell. The rush. It was the same feeling high he got when flying on his firebolt, but this was twice as intense. Harry let out an involuntary shiver, and his thoughts drifted to his conversation with Remus two days before.

* * *

"It wont happen." Remus said, placing his hands on Harry's shoulders and directing him to sit down in one of the many chairs in the staff room. "You have a choice, Harry."

Harry looked up at him, his normal air of confidence still missing. "What if I don't? What if I just don't have the will to resist it?"

Remus bent down in front of Harry and clasped his shoulder, "You're the strongest person I know."

"Am I?" Harry said, looking like he would cry out of pain for the first time in years. "Do you know what it feels like while I'm hunting?" Remus gave Harry a compassionate look, and sadly shook his head, half wanting the answer, and half not. "It feels good. No, it feels great. It's an addicting rush, and while I'm draining whatever innocent creature it is that I've killed, all I want is more, more until I'm completely full."

Remus sighed, calling back memories from long ago when he had sat with another vampire, and comforted him when he was at his weakest, telling him about the thirst.

"Do you know what I used to do?" Harry went on, his eyes glossy with unspilt tears. "Every couple weeks when the hunger returned, I would hold out. I told myself that I wouldn't go do it again, that I would never kill again, that I would never _like_ that twisted high it gives me. I told myself that I would _die_ before I did it again. Do you know what it is? The thirst?"

A stray silver tear slid down Harry's pale cheek, and Remus reached up to wipe it away in a comforting gesture. Never before had Remus noticed how fragile Harry was. His lithe body was shaking, his strength and confidence dissipated in to nothing, leaving only the scared 13 year old child. Remus gathered Harry up in his arms, and took his seat, holding him close. He wanted Harry to stop, he couldn't bare seeing the pain on the face of the boy he had always thought of as a nephew, or even a son. But he knew Harry had to get it all out. And a minute later, he continued.

"The hunger pains aren't bad the first few days, only come for a few seconds once or twice a day, just a slight hollow feeling. But when I put it off, they get worse. After about a week, the pains get really bad. It feels like..like my entire body is cramping up all at once, like my muscles are all turning inside out and trying to crush my bones.. It only lasts for a few minutes or so, but it hurts so much ... I usually gave in before it got that bad."

Remus felt tears leaking down his cheeks. He clutched Harry tighter to him, and he felt no warmth. It had always been a constant reminder of what Harry was. He was half human, but he still never generated as much heat as a normal human should.

"But a few times I've tried to stick it out. Do you know what happens when I don't respond to the pains? The thirst starts. It comes slowly, creeping up on me and getting worse and worse every hour of every day. I used to sit in the library and read to keep my mind off things, the pains still coming every few hours. Then Sirius would come in to see what I was doing, and when I see him, picking up the scent of the blood flowing through his system, the thirst comes. It clouds my mind and tells me to sink my teeth in to his neck and drain him until I'm full. And it makes it seem like it wouldn't be much of a sacrifice, to kill the most important person in my life, just to get rid of the pain. It tells me to do it, but I would push it down, and retreat to my room to be alone before I gave in. But the thirst keeps creeping up, and the pains keep getting worse. It keeps coming, and soon it can take control. I'll be sitting somewhere away from anything living, and then it comes, and all I can think about is finding blood and slaking the thirst. I start running to find something to drain, anything that's alive, even Sirius. But I could still manage to break out of it and push it down when I get to close to someone. It keeps getting worse, though. The more I avoid feeding, the more it takes control, clouds my mind and forces every rational thought out, leaving only the most animalistic of them.

"I've heard of vampires who won't take life, vampires who _beat _the thirst. You know what they do? Before they lose complete control, they isolate themselves. Lock themselves up in a room in which they could never break out of. And then, when the thirst completely overcomes them, they go insane with it, and all they can think about is getting blood, by any means possible. But they can't, and they slowly die of hunger, clawing away and attempting to get out until they breath their last breath.

"So do you know why I stopped avoiding the hunt? I tried .. tried doing it, and I almost did. I was going to chain myself to the wall, cast unbreakable charms all over, break my wand, and stay there until I died. But at the last minute, I hesitate, and ran to the forest before the thirst took complete control and I killed Sirius or some other person. I realized that I couldn't beat it, so I started feeding every two weeks like vampires are suppose to when the hunger starts. And when I sink my teeth in, when I'm draining the animal, _that's_ when I get the rush, a twisted high like no other. Vampires go crazy, killing anyone they meet, just for that addicting rush." And at that, Harry broke, unable to go on any further.

Remus gave another deep sigh, and attempted to comfort Harry, pulling him tighter in to his embrace as the boy's body convulsed and shivered, breaking down in to heaving sobs.

"But you recognize it, and you fear it," Remus whispered in his ear. "and that is why it will never take you."

He had stayed with Harry for hours after that, until the boy had been able to completely compose himself again, pushing everything down and brining out that brilliant, confident boy that everyone knew him to be.

* * *

Harry shivered at the memory as he approached the end of the forest, seeing a few beams of moonlight peeking through. His thoughts drifted back to what he had done to the spider. He had only brought out his fangs and glow to give off a more menacing look, but when he called them out, the thirst had come. No, it wasn't the thirst, because he had just fed, and he wouldn't be hungry for at least a couple weeks. It had been some other instinct, not strong like the thirst, but something that clouded his judgement none to less, pushing him to protect himself.

He wasn't expecting it. He could've pushed it down if he had known it was coming ... right? But this had been the first time that his instincts had kicked in while he wasn't hungry. He had read that a vampires instincts can come out to protect them when they're in danger. He had never been in complete danger, but that must have been what happened, his instincts were telling him to protect himself. But his instincts weren't just pushing him to protect himself, they were pushing him to be violent and cruel with the opposition. That wouldn't happen again though, his instincts would never get the better of him, he could deny the thirst by hunting, and he could push down this other, weaker instinct.

Vampires all over could live a normal life, just as werewolves could. Not all of them are murders, feeding on other wizards. Harry had always wondered why other vampires fed on humans, he guessed it was because they received more of that addicting rush out of the kill. But even if Harry didn't have the will power to withstand the thirst, he had enough to never get addicted to that rush. No, he could keep everything under control. He could feed regularly, and push down that violent instinct when he was in danger. If other vampires could live normally, so could he. Remus had said he was the strongest willed person he knew, but at the moment, he felt like the statement was a contradiction of the truth.

As he made his way back in to the castle, he pushed the unsettling emotions down to where he couldn't feel them. After all, there was no point allowing the emotions to eat away at him when there was nothing he could do about it. Harry would have to live with it, and if more problems arise, he could deal with them as they come. Yet even as he pushed the emotion down, he couldn't seem to stop the thoughts of his previous encounter with the spiders from sitting in the back of his mind, this new violent instinct, this representation of his greatest fear, haunting him.

* * *

Draco sat in the Transfiguration room, eyeing Harry as McGonagall tested him. He had arrived early, like he did to most classes, especially any with the Gryffindors. As it turned out, Harry had also come early, McGonagall wanting to test his level of skill in her subject. Draco looked on as Harry performed all of the first and second year level transfigurations flawlessly, his face neutral and almost bored as he displayed no sign of concentration at all.

It had been three days since the boggart incident, and the confident, powerful Harry was now back. The boy was seemed completely unaffected when the DADA class had come back to finish their practical lesson with the boggart that morning, although he hadn't fought the boggart again. And thanks to Longbottom's work on the boggart, the rumors about Harry's evil twin would be forgotten as soon as the new encounter worked it's way through the rumor mill. Draco had even been helping the rumor a bit, something he usually left to Pansy.

Draco was broken out of his thoughts by some students rushing in to the room. He checked the time and realized that the class was about the start. He looked up to McGonagall, who had a very pleased look on her face, and sent Harry to his seat so she could begin the class. Harry's eyes shifted over the back of the class, but Draco had already sat down there, and his Slytherin friends had joined him, so the boy sat in the front. This allowed Draco to watch Harry through out the class, almost entranced by his fluid movements. He still had that presence, the one that made you think he knew every move you made, maybe even what you were thinking. Draco had the feeling that if he threw a ball of parchment at the boy's head, Harry would most likely reach back and catch it. He pondered doing just that for a moment, before deciding that it was a bad idea. He didn't want to get on Harry's bad side, it would move him further from his goal. What his goal was, he was still unsure, but he didn't want to cause the boy any harm, especially embarrass him by throwing things at him in class.

Although from what Draco had learned about the boy, Harry would probably turn around, raise a rhetorical questioning eyebrow, and then turn back, his cool exterior never leaving. He probably wouldn't even exact revenge, or throw an insult at him like any other Gryffindor would. He had never seen the boy even get frustrated, much less angry. He could get the Weasel fuming like mad with even the smallest of insults, yet Draco felt like he would never be able to get Harry riled up, even if he wanted to. No, the best he could probably do would be to get the boy annoyed. He thought back to Diagon Alley and why Harry had insulted him. Thinking back, it was probably because he was seeing red when he left the store. Only his godfather seemed to be able to do that to him ... but when he was mad, Harry seemed quite capable at pissing people off. Even worse than his words, were his motions. First, it was the way he seemed to relaxed, so at ease under Draco's imperial presence. Then, after Draco had first spoken, he seemed to find Draco unworthy of his attention, and had turned his eyes back to the street. Then when he seemed to realize that Draco wasn't going away, he gave off an exasperated look, and began insinuating that Draco was an idiot.

Somehow, the boy had completely assessed what Draco was and where he could hit him the hardest, then acted it out perfectly. Maybe this was what had drawn Draco in, his appreciation for Harry's talents. But ever since Harry had arrived at school, he hadn't spared Draco a second glance. Actually, the only one he had found worthy of a second glance was Granger, who had been having animated conversations with him at every meal in the great hall for the past few days, sometimes even leaving with him to walk back to the Gryffindor dormitories. Draco felt jealousy rise up inside him at the thought that the mudblood seemed to be the only one that Harry ever directed a smile at.

The class passed all to quickly, and Draco soon found himself following Pansy and Blaise to the great hall. He followed his two friend's lead and took a seat across from them, his gaze immediately searching out Harry across the hall. He found him sitting with Granger again, leaning to the side to read something out of a book she was showing him. His cheek was almost touching with Granger's as he leaned in to read whatever it was that he seemed so interested in. He looked down at the book for a second, his eyes sweeping across the page, before he smiled and leaned back, saying something to Granger. She giggled at his comment, and began talking once more. Neither of them seemed to be eating much, Granger having a full plate of food in front of her and slowly eating away at it, and Harry picking some food off her plate every one of a while, grinning back at her.

Getting a sudden idea, Draco turned his gaze back to his friends. "So, have either of you heard anything about Potter?" he asked in a low voice, leaning across the table slightly. His two friends eyed him strangely at the comment, but they seemed to accept it as curiosity, and answered him truthfully.

"Not much really, besides that whole twin thing of course, and we saw that ourselves. I did hear that his familiar is a snake, but I'm not sure if that's true or not.." Blaise answered.

"A snake? Really?" Draco asked, more to himself than to Blaise. "I'll have to ask around and see if I can find out anything else about that.."

Draco turned to Pansy, who held a thoughtful look on her face, "Well ... Millicent and I had detention with the giant last night, we were taking care of his stupid giant pumpkins in the garden, and I thought I saw Potter on the grounds heading towards the forest. At least it looked like Potter's form, looks like a strong wind would blow him over, doesn't it? Anyways, I looked back, but he had disappeared. Millicent said she never saw him, but I know I did. So we watched for a few minutes, but we didn't see anything, so I guess he must've slipped in to the forest some how.. Maybe he was exploring or something?"

"That's impossible," Blaise interrupted, "He couldn't be in the middle of the grounds one second, then completely gone."

"I know I saw him." Pansy glared, "Maybe he used some sort of cloaking charm or something. Draco saw McGonagall test him, and he was really good, right? And I heard a Hufflepuff say that he was perfect at everything when Flitwick tested him. He probably stole some book from the restricted section and found a powerful invisibility charm that was put there because it was to easy to cast and the teachers don't want us sneaking around."

"Don't be an idiot, Pansy." Blaise snapped, "The more powerful a charm, the harder it is to cast. And even if their was such a spell, don't you think we would know about it? Dumbledore is suppose to be one of the only one's who can do it without a cloak or a potion. And before you start on that, Snape would be the only one here who could brew a invisibility potion, they're extremely hard. And I doubt he has a cloak, only old wizarding families would have one, and none of us have even seen one before."

Draco pondered on the topic for a few minutes, allowing his friends to continue their banter, until he finally spoke up. "Let's keep this to ourselves. It would be nice to have something on Potter incase we ever needed it. Pansy, make sure Millicent doesn't talk, ok?"

Pansy nodded, and Draco went back to his dinner, his thoughts still on the boy across on the hall, and what he was doing in the forest so late at night. Draco had always been scared of the forest, hearing all the stories about the nasty creatures that inhabited the area. It seemed that Harry was not afraid of entering the forest, which wasn't very surprising at all, the boy seemed to be fearless. But why would he even enter in the first place? Draco brain stormed through out dinner, trying to find any possible reason. But in the end, he couldn't come up with anything besides 'exploring', like Pansy had suggested.

Just as Draco was about to give up, following Pansy and Blaise out of the great hall, an idea struck him. He picked up his pace, leading his two friends and two body guards straight down to the Slytherin common room. As soon as the portrait had swung open to reveal the dungeon like room, his eyes were scanning the various tables, searching for a possible candidate.

"Hey Nott!" Draco called out across the room. Theodore Nott looked up from his homework, happy to be addressed by the unofficial 'Prince of Slytherin'. Draco approached the boy and took a seat across from him at his table. "I've got a favor to ask of you.."

* * *

A/N: OK, this chapter pretty much explains all the attributes of a vampire. I was really unsure of how to do the scene with Lupin, and rewrote it a couple times. Did you guys think it was confusing? I was trying to get across that the 'thirst' was an instinct that forced a vampire to feed, slowly taking over if they ignored it. So were you totally lost with all that 'vampire instinct' stuff? I need some feedback this time, I'm considering rewriting that scene again if it's to confusing for everyone.

Anyways, thanks for reading :p


	4. Chapter Four

Draco looked across the great hall from where he sat at the Slytherin house table. His eyes scanned the Gryffindor table, and easily spotted the raven haired youth he had been looking for. It had become almost instinct now, looking across the hall to see if Harry was at his house table. Much to Draco's disappointment, the boy had only been showing up for one or two meals a day. Either that, or he ate quickly and rushed out before Draco had gotten there, and Draco just couldn't picture Harry 'rushing' out of anywhere. But the boy had shown up for this meal. It was now a month and a half in to the term, and everything was going as it always had this time in the school year, despite the presence of Harry Potter.

In fact, Harry seemed to have made a point of blending in, not drawing any attention to himself. The boy only spoke to most people when necessary, and blended in to the many shadows of the school whenever he left his dormitory. The boggart incident seemed to be completely forgotten by every student, with the exception of Draco, who was still trying to figure out what exactly the boggart had meant. Draco stared across the hall at Harry, noting that he only seemed to be with Granger this evening. Harry hadn't made any friends apart from Granger, but the relationship between the two was growing every day. Draco found himself experiencing a burning jealous feeling in the pit of his stomach whenever Harry was to close to Granger. The two had become quite the pair, Harry at the number one slot in every class, and Granger right behind him at number two. It seemed only natural that the two would be good friends, yet Draco couldn't help feeling that they're relationship was closer than normal friends. He visibly scowled every time Harry leaned over to read a book that was in front of Granger, causing far to much contact than Draco felt was necessary.

This had, of course, caused Draco to be slightly enraged at Granger. Apart from Professor Lupin, she was the ONLY one that Harry ever directed a smile at, or laughed with, or did _anything_ with for that matter. Why did he have to choose her? She wasn't popular, even with the Gryffindors, being known as the biggest book worm to have ever entered Hogwarts. She wasn't that good looking either, that bushy brown hair giving her a very _average_ look, a look that was much more suited to blending in than Harry's majestic, elegant look. Just looking at them, not taking in any of their academic status, they looked like the most unlikely pair you would ever meet. To Draco, Harry had become the symbol of perfection. This boy held both physical beauty, and inner strength. His slim form, milky white skin, and jade green eyes were so perfect. If someone could just see past the blinding power that Harry generated, they would notice that fragile, china doll look. Like he was so perfect that if you touched him, he would break.

This had been something that probably only Draco had ever noticed about Harry. Whenever he saw the boy, he seemed to be all Draco could focus on. And this led to him noticing things that no one else ever did. Harry's elegance was not a mask, he was not a pureblood who gave off a purposeful imperial presence whenever he ventured in to public. No, this was the _real_ Harry. This boy who seemed physically weak, yet could probably walk the entire length of Knockturn Alley and come out unscathed. And as Draco thought about it, he found that it wasn't actually Harry's physical presence that was so appealing. Nor was it the great elegance and power that he possessed. No, it was the perfect balance between the two features that made Harry absolutely ... _perfect._

Draco was suddenly broken out of his thoughts as the Headmaster rose from his seat and motioned for the hall to silence. This in itself was a rare occurrence, and it meant that something was happening, which naturally had every student silent and looking on with rapt attention.

"I would like to make an announcement." Dumbledore began, his eyes twinkling as his gaze drifted amongst the students. "Next week is Halloween week, leading up to the traditional Halloween feast. This year, we would like to hold a week long event to celebrate the holiday. In honor of great battles that have been fought on Halloween in the past, we will be hosting a duel tournament."

Dumbledore paused, the twinkle in his eyes increasing. The slight pause was enough for the hall to erupt in many rushed whispers, which all added up to be quite loud. Draco turned and smirked at Pansy and Blaise, who were both grinning wickedly back at him. Growing up in the families that they had, all three of the friends had a fascination with dueling. In fact, they practiced with each other whenever they had the free time. This was why Blaise and Pansy were so excited about the tournament, they had much more experience than a lot of sixth and seventh years, who had never even bothered to practice more than what was required for DADA. Of course, these older students knew much more powerful spells than they did, but the experience would most definitely give them an advantage.

"Ahem.." Dumbledore cleared his voice, smiling at the whispering students. The halls inhabitants quickly quieted down, turning their attention back to Dumbledore. "Tournaments will be hosted here in the great hall after dinner each night next week. There will be one single elimination tournament per year, each lasting until curfew. There will not be a tournament for First and Second years, as they have not yet reached the level required to duel. The third year duel will be on Monday night of next week, with Fourth year on Tuesday, and so on. Only disarming spells will be allowed, any violation of this rule will lead to being removed from the tournament and given further punishment based on the offending spell used. If you are interested in participating, sign up sheets are now posted in your house common rooms. Thank you."

Dumbledore's speech was short and concise as always, and it had the entire hall discussing what the specifics of the tournament would entail. Most students from each year seemed to be wanting to participate, and were now moving on to discussing dueling tactics with their friends. Pansy and Blaise were now talking in hushed, rapid tones about the advanced disarming spells that they could use in the tournament. Draco himself was extremely interested in the idea, and would most definitely be signing up to join.

Draco looked back across the hall at the Gryffindor table where Harry and Granger sat. Draco expected a person such as Harry to be interested in the idea. He was extremely good in DADA, even though the only practical lessons they had so far this year were against magical creatures. So when Draco looked across the hall, he was extremely surprised. Granger's face was stone, and she was now looking straight down in to her book, attempting to tune out the people around here. This was expected. No, the real surprise came when Draco looked over at Harry, who wore an expression identical to Granger's.

* * *

"I don't want to." Harry said, frowning at Remus. The two were sitting in Remus' office, discussing Dumbledore's announcement at dinner. 

"What's wrong with it Harry? You've always loved practice dueling with Sirius, why don't you want to do it now?" Remus said, sitting in a chair opposite Harry's and giving him a contemplative look.

Harry frowned even deeper at Lupin's last comment, but gave no answer. He didn't like it when people asked question's to which they already knew the answer.

"Ok," Remus sighed heavily and sat back in his chair, fixing Harry with a contemplative stare. "Harry, I know your scared of this, but it's nothing to do with having power. It's about how you use the strength that's given to you. Dumbledore is the greatest wizard of our time, and he is also one of the best men you will ever meet."

"Absolute power corrupt's absolutely." Harry said solemnly, returning Lupin's stare.

"Do you know the difference, do you?" Remus answered sharply. Lupin's eyes bored in to Harry's, and for the first time in a while, Harry was shocked. Never before had Remus been so _harsh_. His explanations were always calm and thought out, but this was different, and that was what grabbed Harry's attention more than anything. With that same sharp look, Lupin continued. "The difference between Power and Strength."

"There is no difference." Harry stated, eyeing Remus with half questioning and half determined eyes.

"Oh, but there is." Remus said, unblinking. "Haven't you ever heard the term 'Money is Power'?" Harry did not respond to this, but his eyes were now completely questioning. "There can be no rich if there are no poor. Power follows the same rule. You cannot have power without the weak. The Dark Lord would be nothing without his followers, or his enemies."

"Of course, I agree." Harry said, face impassive. "But this has nothing to do with the difference of Strength and Power."

"Yes, it does." Lupin responded. "In fact, that _is_ the difference. Strength is not held back by the rule of power. Strength is something that you possess within you. Strength has nothing to do with how many people are kissing your boots. Strength is why the Dark Lord feared Dumbledore. Dumbledore possesses immense strength. He possesses the ability to look in to the eyes of the hideous, twisted person that was the former Tom Riddle, and hold no fear. The Dark Lord fears death more than anything, and that is proof that he possesses no strength. Can't you see it? A person with true strength who dies in battle would be happy that they died for a cause. If a person weak of strength dies, they will look at it as the greatest of losses. Do you see now, Harry? You are willing to die, and for what? To save the lives of the animals you drain? Any death eater would find this laughable, just as any person that know's what true strength is would regard this as a show of the immense strength that you posses."

As Remus ended his speech, Harry could do nothing but continue to stare in to his eyes as clarity suddenly flooded in to him. All this time, he had been blind. He had wondered _how_ a person like Dumbledore could resist corruption. How a person who held the complete trust of the wizarding world could resist the pull that power has over all people. But as Harry processed Remus' words, he found the answer. Dumbledore had the trust of those close to him, but he did not have the trust of those that had never met the man. What he had from all wizards and witches was respect. Respect for a person that held such great strength that he could stare in to the eyes of Lord Voldemort himself, and offer him a lemon drop. A man that most likely held a magical power that was not far above Voldemort's, but could still duel with the twisted man and act as if he were finding the challenge A blast of fresh air.

"Strength is something that you have in spades, Harry." Lupin continued, breaking Harry out of his thoughts. "And do you know what? When you come up against the Dark Lord himself, one on one, you will find that his power means nothing in that contest. Power is held back by that rule. You will be the only other person in that battle, and unless you fear him, he will have no power. And when you stare in to his face, unafraid, you will find that you still possess the strength, and he is left with nothing. _That_ is the difference between power and strength." Lupin finished, sitting back in his chair and fixing Harry with a calm stare.

Harry slumped back in to his chair, his eyes unfocused, and his insides reeling. Remus' words continuously played back in his mind, and he found that everything was falling in to place. He had no desire to rule over people, no desire to hold power over them. Yet, he still could not ignore the nagging feeling that was always in the back of his mind. Yes, maybe he did not want power, but the vampire in him seemed to crave it with a passion.

* * *

Harry sighed as he stepped through the portrait of the fat lady, entering the Gryffindor common room. The room was as it had always been, warm and welcoming, fire crackling merrily. The normal, almost instinctive stares of the inhabitants of the common room followed Harry as he made his way across the room, sliding in to a seat next to Hermione Granger, who didn't even look up from the scroll she was writing on as she murmured a hello. This always brought a grin to Harry's face, the fact that she was the only in this school that seemed to find a book more interesting than staring at the small, lightning shaped scar that was usually covered by the black locks of hair falling in to Harry's eyes. Harry had originally befriended the girl because she was such interesting conversation, but the friendship growing so closely in just a couple months was due to the fact that Hermione was just so ... normal with him. She gave him respect, just like everyone else at the school, but for completely different reasons. She gave him respect because of his academic achievements, and as she had said, his personality. 

"Hey," Harry grinned at the girl, looking at what she was righting and leaning his head next to her's so that their cheeks were touching, forming their classic pose. Both had made it clear to each other that they were not interested in each other romantically, and this made the relationship so much more open. People often mistake their constant contact as attraction, but what people didn't seem to realize was that it was incredibly hard to read from the same book without being close to the other reading. Harry rarely admitted it to himself, but he liked their open relationship. Hermione's touch was a lot like Sirius', it calmed him, reminding him that she would always be there for him if he needed it. "Did you know that your five inches past the minimum length of that potions essay? You shouldn't do that, people might think you're a nerd."

At this, Hermione looked up from her parchment and slapped Harry on the arm. "'Nerd' is a word used by people who are academically jealous of those more successful than them." Hermione stuck out her tongue at Harry, causing him to smile back.

"I guess we _need_ to make our homework longer, huh? Snape would fail us right away if he saw us doing the minimum, like the Slytherin's. Malfoy seems to be the only one that is even interested in that subject.." Harry trailed off thoughtfully.

"Malfoy just likes it because he gets to see his favorite Professor insulting all of us." Hermione scoffed.

"Yeah, maybe. But I wonder about him sometimes, he's always watching me." Harry said, the thoughtful look still in place.

At this, Hermione looked back up from her potion's essay. "Harry, I'm sure you've noticed, but _everyone_ is always watching you. Look behind you, there are four first years sitting three tables away whispering to each other and giving you long stares."

"I know," Harry frowned, "But Malfoy is different, he's not talking about me, not spreading rumors, he's just _watching_ me. And watching me more than everyone else if you ask me."

"Your just being paranoid, Harry." Hermione said, "You shouldn't let things like this bother you. You've got other things to worry about."

"Like what?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow at his new 'best friend'.

"Like your eating habits," Hermione frowned, "You really should be eating more. If you had a better appetite you might be able to build up some muscle."

"Are you insinuating that I'm weak?" Harry said in a hurt voice, dramatically placing his hands on his flat chest over his heart, acting as if a fatal blow had just been dealt there. "I know martial arts you know! I could probably take those two big guys that follow Malfoy around.."

"Of course, you can do anything you put your mind to." Hermione said, patting Harry on the arm. This sense of humor was something she had obviously picked up from Harry.

"I'm a lot tougher than I look!" Harry cried indignantly. He inwardly grinned at how true that statement was, he was A LOT tougher than he looked. But the grin was followed by a sharp spike of guilt. The guilt had been plaguing Harry for the last few weeks. Hermione was not aware of the fact that Harry was part vampire, and although Harry was pretty sure that she wouldn't react too badly to the information, he had promised that he wouldn't tell a soul. "Oh yeah, I have something to talk to you about, can we go up to my room?"

Hermione looked at Harry strangely, but nodded, gathering up her scrolls and books, then following Harry up the stairs leading to the boy's dormitories. It was a secret among the third year boy's, but Harry had been given his own private room in Gryffindors tower. The reason was fairly simple, no one but Harry could get to sleep knowing that there was a spitting snake in range of them. It seemed that Neville Longbottom hadn't really minded to much, but the other three boy's had confronted McGonagall the day after they figured out Harry had a lethal snake as a familiar. McGonagall had then talked over the issue with Dumbledore, who decided to give Harry a vacant room in Gryffindors tower.

Harry passed the third year boy's room, and made his way up farther, past the seventh year's room. Harry's room was just below the Head Boy's room at the top of the tower, and was a fairly good size, the traditional four poster against one wall, with a large book case and desk against the other. It also contained a small connecting bathroom, of which Hermione was extremely jealous. Hermione was always complaining about the other girls in her dorm taking up all the time in the bathroom. When she had found that Harry had his own facilities, she had pouted until Harry gave in and allowed her the use of it. The next day she had moved all of her beauty supplies in to his bathroom, leaving Harry overwhelmed with the amount of hair products she owned, knowing that most other girls must have twice that amount. This, of course, led to Hermione using up the half of the bookcase that Harry hadn't used for his own collection. All things considered, Hermione spent as much time in here as she spent in her own room.

This might have seemed strange, but the fact that their was no sexual interest between the two was what made them both comfortable with it. Hermione had told Harry about her secret crushes over the years, and Harry had told Hermione about his old school. The friendship was only strengthened by the fact that they both had so much in common. When Harry had asked, Hermione found she couldn't express why she wasn't interested in him romantically. But Harry had known why, because they had that in common to. Neither was looking for an exact copy of themselves, but a soul to match their own perfectly. Like a missing puzzle piece, it's not the same as the piece it goes with, and that is why it fits so perfectly.

Harry sat down on the bed, and Hermione took a seat next to him, wondering what Harry was about to talk to her about. Whatever it was, she knew that it must have been serious.

* * *

Draco looked around the great hall, his eyes anxiously flicking between the third year students that surrounded him. He, Pansy, and Blaise had spent the entire weekend practicing, and now the time had come. It was Monday, and dinner had just ended. Dumbledore had cleared the tables in the great hall with just a flick of his wand. Tall, but sturdy bleachers were now lined up against the side of the expansive room, and students were already fighting over the front row seats. But it was the center of the hall that attracted the most attention. The space now held a huge dueling circle, marked by a silverish line on the floor that Dumbledore himself had drawn. The circle was the limit of the duel, and would supposedly absorb any spell that was fired at it from either side, making the spectators safe, and preventing sabotage by outside forces. Draco found the sabotage idea laughable, knowing that Dumbledore could probably sense an invisible spell blindfolded, and would just as easily hand the person a years worth of detentions. This was the old man's soft spot. He would rather save the possible sabotage from themselves than flush out the person. 

The third years who were participating were now in a small room behind the staff table, all chatting excitedly to each other, attempting to hide their anxiety. Draco himself could admit that he was scared. It wasn't the duel itself that he was nervous about, but the fact that he would be dueling in front of the entire school. A Malfoy was expected to not only do well, but to make it look good. Draco had always hated the fact that he was forced to make all of his actions look elegant and meaningful, all because of his last name. Well, not because of his last name, but because his father was counting on him to uphold the Malfoy name, and he loved his father. The man may seem cold in public, but he loved his wife and son, they were his soft spot.

Draco shook off the thought, this was not the time to allow his mind to wonder. He had to do well in this tournament. He had given up the chance of winning, seeing as how Blaise was better than him, but he would have the good grace of making it semi finals, and then losing to a pureblood when he did. He was confident that the only one that could beat him was Blaise. No, not just Blaise. There was also _him._ Draco's eyes flicked over to the warm, crackling fire in the room, where Harry Potter and Hermione Granger could be found sitting together. It seemed Harry had convinced the mudblood to participate. As Draco watched them, he once again found himself hit by a spark of jealousy. No, not a spark, more like a bolt. Harry was now constantly directing smiles at the obviously nervous Granger. He was telling jokes, making her laugh, trying to cheer her up any way possible. His attempts seemed to be only half working, because although Granger laughed at the jokes, it was a nervous laugh.

On the other hand, Harry was sitting next to Granger with a calming hand on her arm, not seeming nervous at all. This infuriated Draco to no end. It wasn't the fact that Harry wasn't nervous, that just added to his already intimidating presence. No, it was the hand on Granger's arm that made his hands clench in to fists, and his arms shake in anger. What was he doing with Granger? Was he actually _hitting_ on her? And if he was showing interest, why the hell wasn't Granger grabbing the dream boy and snogging him to death? What is WRONG with that girl? This proved Draco's point about mudblood's and stupidity, but it also had a slight calming effect. Perhaps it was just because Granger was so nervous, but she wasn't responding to Harry's advances at all. The big question was _why _this relieved Draco.

Draco's thoughts were interrupted by a loud, nervous laugh emanating from a Hufflepuff behind him, and cursed himself for losing his focus again. He had to stay focused, he had to, this was not just about living up to the Malfoy name and making his father proud. No, this was about impressing the school, impressing _him._ Maybe if Draco went far in the tournament than Harry would spare him a second glance, something he hadn't done for Draco since the incident in Diagon Alley. In fact, Harry never spared anyone a second glance. Only Granger, and a couple other Gryffindor's, had ever held Harry's attention long enough to get more than one question out. This only added to Harry's presence, making people feel like they had to _earn_ his attention, like it wouldn't be given freely. If Draco acted this way with most of the Slytherin's, as Harry was doing with most of the Gryffindor's, than it would make him look completely conceded. But with Harry, it seemed like he was justified in making people earn his attention.

Draco shook the thoughts away, cursing himself for a THIRD time. He looked away from Harry, who was now behind Granger and rubbing her shoulders, a worried expression on his face. This was much to distracting. He began playing back some of the duel tactics that he had been working on, keeping them a secret from even Pansy and Blaise. Spell and dodging combinations began scrolling through his mind, running through many possible scenario's. He had not only studied up on the advanced spells he would use, but the counter curses to the lower level hex's that would be used by most other's in his year. If he was hit by something childish like a tickling hex, he could get out the counter curse, and probably surprise his opponent with his quick recovery.

"Quiet Down!" came the stern voice of McGonagall from behind. She had somehow opened the door and come in without Draco noticing. "In order to get through the tournament in a few hours, you must be ready for your match before the match before yours even begins. Here is the order." McGonagall waved her wand, making a list of the first sixteen matches for round one and their order. "Now, when the match before yours commences, you will stand just inside this door. When the match before yours is over, a bell will ring in the room, and you and your opponent will walk out and in to the dueling circle. You will each take a place at one of the two marked starting positions for the duel, and give your bow. The Headmaster will initiate the duel with a loud shot of his wand, and then you may begin. You all know the rules, you may only hit your opponent with disarming spells. Any questions?"

A Hufflepuff raised a hand, and McGonagall gave a nod of acknowledgment. "Why can't we watch the duels?" his asked, sounding utterly confused and lost.

"This is the traditional format of a tournament. If you lose a match and get eliminated, you have the choice of taking a seat in the bleachers instead of returning here. In an official dueling tournament, this would not be aloud, but Dumbledore has aloud this miner exception. Any other questions?" Mcgonagall asked. Upon seeing no raised hands, McGonagall finished. "Excellent. If you are in one of the first three matches, line up by the door. Once the bell rings, the first match will proceed out the door, and the fourth match will line up. Good Luck."

And with that, McGonagall turned around and left Draco's eyes immediately darted to the board. He scanned the matches from top to bottom, and smirked in delight. He couldn't believe his luck. He read back the listing just to be sure. The fifth match down, _Malfoy vs. Granger_. Now he could finally teach that mudblood who was boss.

* * *

Draco had wondered how a full tournament of 36 students would finish in just a few hours, but now the reason was only to clear. Duel's between students were unimaginably quick. The bell in the room wasn't even needed, because the end of each match was signified by a thundering applause from the surrounding audience. The longest duel so far had been only about four minutes by Draco's watch. Draco thought how pitiful this was, judging by the fact that some of his duels with Blaise lasted over fifteen minutes, this was child's play. The fastest match had been the third, _Potter vs. Bulstrode_. The match had barely lasted a forty five seconds, and ended with the loudest applause yet. The reason why McGonagall had allowed students the choice of returning to the room or joining the audience had now become obvious. Only the best of sports would be able to join their fellow students in the stands after they were defeated. Bulstrode had come back in to the room, headed to an empty corner, and promptly broke down in to badly hidden tears. Harry had followed her in to the room and headed straight for Granger, who was watching Bulstrode with a sympathetic look. 

But Draco's match arrived all to fast, and while he was still nervous, he was facing the very person he had been wanting to face for almost two months now. Granger had infuriated him on countless occasions, and now, as he stood lined up by the door, he found the anger overpowering the anxiety. Granger was standing just behind him, and he had wanted to get in an intimidating word with her, but Harry had followed her up, and was smiling confidently at her, talking to her in a hushed whisper. Draco had no idea what the topic of the conversation was, but he had a feeling that it was not the strategic conversation he had just had with Blaise, but was something much deeper. Harry seemed to be transferring some of his infinite confidence to Granger, and it was working. Her look of nervousness was replaced by determination, and she gave Harry a small smile as the applause thundered from the great hall, shortly followed by the shrill ring of the bell.

Draco took a calming breath, and opened the door, stepping out with a look of complete confidence on his face. The students were still whispering in excited tones about the previous match, but turned their attention to Draco as he approached the circle. Each of the four walls of the room held a massive black board just above the top of the bleachers. Each board held an identical tournament tree, with the names of the upcoming first round matches, and the two second round matches that had already been decided. As Draco approached the silverish circle drawn on the ground, he braced himself for whatever would happen when he stepped in. But to his surprise, nothing happened as he crossed the barrier and walked to the blue starting marker on the far side of the circle. He turned once he reached the spot, and saw a slightly nervous looking Granger enter the circle and proceed to the unoccupied blue circle. A silverish flash ran over the shield as Granger crossed in to the circle, seemingly activating the barrier. But as soon as the flash had come, the walls were invisible once again.

Draco watched Granger with narrowed eyes, a full sneer in place on his face as she stood in the blue circle. Draco saw Dumbledore stand from his seat at the staff table to the right. This was it, the duel was about to begin. Draco brought his out his full anger to overcome any nervous feeling he was still having. His chosen tactic ran through his mind once more as he turned every scrap of his focus to the duel.

Draco inclined his head slightly in to what could pass off as a bow, as Granger simultaneously did the same, although somewhat deeper. Both opponents rose, taking a beginning stance with their wands raised. Out of the corner of his eye, Draco watched Dumbledore raise his wand and fire off a small shower of blue sparks with a loud BANG.

"_Furnunculus!" _Draco cried out, swishing his wand down with a flicking motion. The spell shot out of Draco's wand straight at the opposite blue opening spot.

Granger side stepped the spell to the right before shouting out her starting spell, "_Expelliarmus!"_

Draco was already moving around the circle, and easily jumped out of the range of Granger's disarming spell. "_Confundus!"_ he rasped out.

Granger dodged again, and used a more advanced spell this time, _"Impedimenta!"_

Draco used an advanced slashing motion with his wand to block the spell, turning it 90 degree's in to the walls of the circle. He didn't pause to check if the spell was absorbed or not, but instead brought his wand up again and sent a much faster spell at Granger. "_Flipendo!"_

Granger had been dodging in one direction the entire time, and Draco took advantage of that. He sent his curse slightly to the left of Granger, and as she dodged, it hit home. The force of the spell knocked Granger backwards and she flew out of the circle, slamming down hard on to the unforgiving stone floor. Her back took most of the blow, with her head snapping down after it. The spell Draco had used was technically allowed, but it WAS slightly more dangerous than a confundus charm. He really had no choice, the miner level spells were to slow, he needed something faster.

Applause thundered out loudly from the Slytherin's, but the other houses only gave minimal clapping, giving Draco nasty looks for not only getting in a cheap shot, but also doing it to a girl. Pomfry rushed over to Granger and waved her want to take care of any bruise she had gained from her fall, but let her go fairly quickly, going back to one of the participants who hadn't returned to the back room, evidently because of the extremely long teeth that the student had.

Granger regained her feet, and looked towards the Slytherin's who were all pointing and laughing at her. A red blush of embarrassment rose to her face, and she turned and fled from the hall, unspilt tears glistening in her eyes. Draco gave a bow and a smirk to his fellow Slytherin's, before following Granger to the back room. As he entered the room, Pansy and Blaise were waiting and both gave him an excited pat on the back. Draco instinctively looked towards the fire where Harry had sat, and as soon as he saw Harry, he found the mistake he had made in hurting Granger with an angry passion. Harry Potter was now giving him a second glance, but it was no where near the kind of glance he had wanted.

* * *

Harry was sitting by the fire, anxiously waiting for Hermione to return from her duel. He had confidence in Hermione's ability with a wand, but dueling was a different matter. She was great at performing the spells, but this wasn't a classroom where you shot at an unmoving and unattacking target. And when Harry had seen that Draco Malfoy would be her first opponent, he began to worry. Harry had thought Hermione capable of bouncing back if she lost to someone with a good fight. But when it was a Slytherin, it changed things. If she lost to Malfoy, his Slytherin house mates would make sure it hurt far beyond physical pain. 

And as the crowd interrupted in to a some what weak cheer, Harry was filled with a nervous feeling far beyond that of when he had dueled Bulstrode earlier. He had barely been nervous at all in his duel, but this, this was _Hermione_. Sometimes even her house mates embarrassed her with their light taunting about her being a nerd, so what would the Slytherin's do to her? His heart dropped with a painful pang as he watched his best friend burst in to the room, and run over to him. She leaned against the wall by the fire and slid down to sit next to Harry, face red in embarrassment, and silent tears beginning to fall from her eyes.

Harry watched sadly as he reached over and pulled his friend up to him. She returned his hug, holding tightly to him with her face buried in his neck. The silent tears came faster, and soon she was sobbing, her body shaking and convulsing against Harry's. Harry said nothing, running his up and down her back in a calming gesture. She wasn't like Harry in this respect, she didn't think like him. Harry wouldn't see the use of crying over spilt milk, no matter how much milk was spilt, and so he wouldn't. What's the point? But Hermione, she didn't have that much control over her emotions, and she would just need to get it out.

Harry heard the door swing open again, and whipped his head around to face the entering person. Draco Malfoy stepped through the door, and was immediately confronted by every Slytherin in the room. They all swarmed around him and congratulated him, before the group started moving back to the Slytherin corner of the room. Malfoy turned his head, glancing over towards Harry. And in that moment, their eyes locked. Harry turned his face emotionless, but he could almost feel his eyes heating up with a burning intensity. Malfoy must have noticed as well, because he looked utterly shocked, and fear flashed across his face. He quickly broke the eye contact, turning back to the Slytherin's and following them to their corner at a hurried pace.

Harry knew that the boy would not risk another look at him, and so he turned his attention to Hermione. The girl's sobs were still coming, but she was slowly calming down. After another few minutes, the tears were gone, but her head remained on Harry's shoulder, her arms still clinging tightly around his lower chest. Harry could only hold her tighter, looking down with a sad expression. In the past two months, of which Harry had constantly been in Hermione's presence, he had never seen her so shaken.

* * *

Draco was more than a little unsettled by Harry's reaction to him embarrassing Granger. He hadn't even thought about what Harry's reaction would be. He was blinded by his anger, focusing on nothing but his revenge on Granger. As he sat with his Slytherin friends, he found himself unable to think about anything but the look that Harry had given him as he walked in. Harry's eyes were just so..menacing. They seemed to actually _glow_, an eery green light emanating from them. A light formed from the hot emerald fire that was ablaze in his eyes. Harry's face had been emotionless, but his eyes alone had turned the look in to one of the most intimidating looks he had ever known. 

The picture of Harry's glare kept flashing through Draco's mind, and no matter how hard he tried to forget about it, the picture seemed to have embedded itself there. The rest of the first round passed in what seemed like only a few minutes, both Blaise and Pansy coming back victorious. Soon, Potter was getting up to his second round match, leaving Granger by the fire for only a couple minutes before he won and returned.

Draco's match was directly after Harry's, and he risked one last glance at Harry before he left the room. Harry was sitting down next to Granger again, resting a concerned hand on her arm. That picture was still flashing in his mind as Draco bowed to the Weasel, and began their match.

Draco fired off his first spell, but the Weasel jumped to the side, countering his spell with a weak disarming spell. The Weasel's spell's were weak, but he could dodge. Draco found himself unable to hit him, half because of his agility, and half because that damn image of Harry's glare kept coming back to him. Just as Draco had fire off his sixth spell, Weasel fired another disarming spell before his dodge. The image of Harry's glare was to distracting, and Draco stumbled as he attempted to side step the spell. The disarming spell caught his shoulder, and his wand flew straight out of his hand and on to the floor in front of the Weasel.

The shock showed clearly on Draco's face as a loud applause filled the hall. The Weasel was bowing in all directions, grinning madly and waving to a few Gryffindor's here and there, his head inflating by the second. Draco sullenly walked closer to the red haired boy and picked his wand back up, a scowl on his face. He had the choice between joining his two best friends back in the room, and joining the rest of the Slytherin house. In the end, he was to shamed to see his friends, and he took a seat at the very back of the Slytherin stands where no one could stare at him.

The matches continued, and Draco watched numbly, barely noticing his surroundings until the end of match applause boomed across the hall. He found the shame of his pathetic dueling was bad, but it hadn't fully sunk in yet. He found that there was something even worse at the back of his mind. The way Harry had looked at him. The way Harry completely hated him now, and would never speak to him unless it was to utter a spell.

The only match he watched was Harry's in the third round, where he beat a fairly good Hufflepuff in a five or six minute duel. Harry dueled with an elegant grace that Draco had come to expect of the boy. His dodges were all perfectly calculated, and his spell's and wand motions were all the model of perfect magic execution. The way he dueled seemed beyond elegant, almost like a dance. He seemed to be able to predict each spell his opponent was going to fire off before it even happened. Surprisingly, he used a lot of basic disarming spells, just like the Weasel and Granger had. Harry ended up beating the Hufflepuff with a full body bind, hitting him with the counter curse as soon as the end of match bell had rung out. Harry's face maintained his emotionless gaze, just as he maintained his elegance through out the entire duel. But his actions, like the counter curse and nod of recognition he gave after the duel, were just more things that demanded respect for the boy.

Time wore on, and it was just a half hour before the tournament reached it's time limit. But it seemed that Dumbledore had been correct in his planning, because it was now the semi-finals. Blaise faced Pansy in a furious battle, ending after ten minutes with Blaise hitting Pansy with a confundus curse, and then finishing her with a bind. Harry came up next, and bowed to Justin Finch-Fletchley, a Hufflepuff who had some how got lucky enough to never face a Slytherin, but instead beat the Gryffindors who had faced him last round. This duel lasted about the same length as Harry's last one, ending with Harry disarming Finch-Fletchley and catching the Hufflepuff's wand in his free hand.

Harry gave the boy his wand back, giving him a slight nod, and returned to his starting position, not getting a rest before the finals. Even thought the boy had been dodging spells all night, Draco had never seem him give any sigh of tiring. In fact, Harry seemed the exact opposite of tired. He was his elegant, powerful, and attractive self. No change occurring in his breathing pattern, and not a bead of sweat on him. Blaise stepped in to the circle, a look of grim determination on his face as he sneered at Harry and took the opposite starting point.

The crowd watched in complete silence, all focusing on the pair, but mostly on Harry. Draco himself found that he was completely entranced with Harry as the two boy's bowed to each other. And as they rose from their bow's, he saw Harry turn his head, and locked eyes with Draco. Draco flinched at the glance, knowing that Harry was looking straight in to his eyes, despite his distance. And what scared Draco the most was that he saw the same blazing green fire that had been there after his match with Granger, that same deadly glare. He did it so imperceptibly that no one but him saw, but the glance was all to obvious to Draco.

Harry quickly snapped his eyes back to his opponent as Dumbledore stood. Both boy's assumed a beginning stance, Blaise's looking forced, and Harry's looking naturally elegant. Before Draco could even comprehend what was happening, blue sparks shot out of Dumbledore's wand with a loud bang, and with the crowd completely silent, the duel began.

_"Impedimenta!" _Blaise shouted loudly, brandishing his wand and simultaneous running along the edge of circle to his right, a move that most people could not pull off very easily.

But Harry did not attack when the bang went off, and made no move to do so. He stood, rooted to his spot, looking completely relaxed and focused. As Blaise cast his spell, aiming directly at the boy with a practiced accuracy, Harry suddenly jumped in to motion. Almost as if on instinct, Harry brought his wand down in a quick and precise slashing motion, uttering an incantation in a low whisper. "_Protego."_

Blaise had no time to react as his spell came flying back at him, even faster than when he had cast it. He picked up his pace and jumped to the side, his redirected spell just missing him over his left shoulder.

But Harry had not stopped at the advanced blocking charm. Almost as if it were in the same motion as his shield charm, Harry flicked his wand back up again. Without any noticeable incantation, a powerful red spell shot out of the tip of Harry's wand at a startling speed, faster than any other spell Draco had seen in the tournament. Blaise's reflected spell had barely passed over his left shoulder when he was hit hard by the strong red spell, square in the chest. Blaise's eyes rolled back in his head as he slumped over and out of consciousness, the impact of the spell sliding him back a few feet in the process. Blaise's wand rolled out of his dead, unmoving hand. He showed no sign of life at all apart from the slow rise and fall of his chest as he lay motionless in an awkward, unnatural position at the edge of the dueling circle. The duel had lasted less than ten seconds, the shortest one yet.

The students were all shocked in to silence for a few seconds, before they suddenly burst in to applause, many standing up and screaming out with the others. This time, Harry did not revive his opponent, but instead calmly walked out of the dueling circle, and back towards the room where Granger was probably waiting for him. Harry never once lost his calm and elegant exterior, his face remaining emotionless, the fire in his eyes cooling as he left the hall. The applause stopped as Harry left the room, and was replaced by excited conversation.

Draco was to astonished to think as he watched the school medi-witch bustle out and revive Blaise, who seemed a little disoriented as she helped him up. Dumbledore stood and spoke out, telling every student to head back towards their dormitories, as it was almost curfew. The excited talk continued outside the great hall as the students emptied out, the houses splitting up into smaller groups and heading towards their own common room's.

Draco numbly followed the inhabitants of his house, straying behind the others with a lost look on his face. All he could think about was the jade fire that had been burning in Harry's eyes both times he looked at Draco that night.

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A/N: Ok, I know that the whole duel tournament thing is kinda cliche, but it was necessary for the plot, so I hope it wasn't to bad. This was the longest chapter yet, simply because I hate to leave off on cliff hangers. I hate it when authors just stop when they reach about the right word amount for the chapter, it's really annoying :( It's also annoying when the author has huge note at the end just so the chap looks bigger, so I'm gonna leave off here. Thanks for the reviews guys, hope you liked this chapter. 


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